Civil Liberties Groups Urge Probe of Homeland Security Privacy Office

A coalition of 21 organizations and seven people sent a letter to lawmakers asking them to investigate the Department of Homeland Security office in charge of protecting Americans' privacy, saying it is enabling, rather than curbing, government surveillance and intelligence programs. The Privacy Coalition includes groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

The letter criticized the DHS Privacy Office, specifically mentioning that it had reviewed privacy effects of practices such as: suspicion-less searches of computers at border checkpoints, whole body imaging at airports, and closed-circuit television surveillance. But the office has done little to scale them back.

The letter from the Privacy Coalition comes after some groups have criticized the Obama administrations support for renewing the USA Patriot Act. Many civil liberties groups have argued the President has not made changes to privacy-threatening security measures put in place by George W. Bush.

GAP has long called for better protection of civil liberties. Click here to read an op/ed in the Los Angeles Times by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack.