Privacy and the Government - Ethics for the Information Age - page 306

patterns indicating the presence of terrorist networks. The Transportation Security Ad-
ministration installed highly intrusive advanced imaging technology scanners at airport
security checkpoints.
The Social Security number is an important identifier in the United States, but it
has many flaws. The US Congress passed the REAL ID Act that created a new standard
for driver's licenses. Once the law is in effect, the new driver's license would probably
become the most trusted form of identification in the United States, a de facto national
identification card. States have been slow to comply with the federal law, and the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security is providing temporary deferments to the states that have
not yet issued driver's licenses that meet the new standard.
Review Questions
1. What are the four categories in Daniel Solove's taxonomy of privacy? Come up with your
own examples of activities conducted by government agencies falling into each of these
categories.
2. How does the Employee Polygraph Protection Act help job applicants and company em-
ployees maintain their privacy? What is the most significant loophole in the Employee
Polygraph Protection Act?
3. What is the purpose of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act?
4. What are the two principal purposes of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination
Act?
5. Give two examples of the Census Bureau illegally revealing census data to other federal
agencies.
6. Name two notable successes claimed by the National Crime Information Center.
7. What is the purpose of the OneDOJ database? What are its weaknesses, according to the
critics of this database?
8. Provide an example of overt surveillance by a government agency in the United States.
9. Provide two examples of covert surveillance by the US government.
10. What right is guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution?
11. Why was the US Supreme Court decision in Nardone v. United States so important?
12. What was the key ruling of the US Supreme Court in the case of Weiss v. United States ?
13. How did the decision of the US Supreme Court in the case of Katz v. United States change
the concept of privacy?
14. How did Operation Shamrock begin? What abuses arose from the continuation of Op-
eration Shamrock?
15. What was the purpose of the Carnivore system?
16. Why did the National Security Agency begin its secret wiretapping program?
17. Why did the TALON database spark controversy?
18. What is a pen register?