Big Brother is Watching You

November, 2012

Technically it is matter of computer systems and surveillance cameras and your fellow citizens keeping track of you. But at some point this can become monitoring by our "big brother" government. Here are some examples of recent developments in this area.

Do You Pay Cash?

Do you pay for your coffee with currency or a credit card? Does it matter? The FBI has distributed fliers to companies around the country to train them in what to watch for and report that might indicate terrorist activities or intent. One of the indications mentioned is someone who always pays cash for his or her coffee. No, this is a conspiracy theory. The various "awareness" programs of this sort that are created and promoted by various government agencies have been growing in number, and although news of them has been spotty, the Huffington Post and others have published some articles on the topic.

Now, the question for those who prefer to maintain their privacy is this: Do you pay by credit card and so leave a record of every place you go, or do you use cash and face potential targeting as someone who may have terrorist intent? Perhaps, if it privacy is important enough to you, the best solution would be to pay cash but spread your coffee shop visits out among several establishments, so no one employee sees a pattern of frequent currency purchases.

Large cash purchases have been monitored for a long time, by the way. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been tracking currency transactions under Title 31, for example. This was originally meant to track large cash dealings at banks, but was long ago expanded to casinos and even car dealerships. Any transaction over $10,000 that happens in a 24-hour period at a covered organization has to be reported to the government using a particular form that identifies the person involved.

This is meant to help locate criminals who might be laundering money, but it is not such a simple law. When I worked in a casino, for example, we were supposed to watch customers, tracking their chip purchases and notifying the pit bosses if those exceeded $2,500, at which point the surveillance team would start monitoring them on camera. But worse than just spying on our customers, we were forbidden by law from telling them anything about Title 31. We had to attend training in Title 31 enforcement, and it was made clear that we could go to jail if we helped subvert the intent of the law.

For example, if the casino's reporting day ended at midnight, a customer who had $13,000 in chips in front of him might cash in $9,000 prior to twelve o'clock and cash in the other $4,000 after midnight, in order to avoid giving his personal information and having a report sent to the IRS. But if I was to mention this fact to him I could be fined $50,000 and go to jail for five years. This would be true even if he had spent $20,000 and the $13,000 was what he had left after his losses. So much for freedom of speech.

If you value your privacy, keep Title 31 in mind. Internal records are generally kept by institutions (and are available to IRS officials) for any cash transactions over $2,500 in a day. Forms have to be forwarded to the government for transactions of $10,000 or more in currency. So if you do not want bureaucrats to know that you bought $20,000 in gold coins, for example, buy them every couple days spending less than $2,500 each time until you have spent your $20,000 in total.

Don't Trust Those Crime Labs

In case you missed the news, Boston is facing a problem in regards to drug arrests they have made. It turns out that hundreds of people may have been falsely convicted. The former state crime lab analyst Annie Dookhan was arrested for fraudulent work on drug cases, and has admitted to several crimes, including labeling samples of supposed drugs as "positive" without testing them, and even marking samples that were not drugs as positive for drugs. She also happened to have been hired based on a degree that she never received. You can read more about this story here: Boston Drug Scandal.

This is one more example of why you should not be too cooperative with police if you are falsely accused of a crime. Imagine if you had volunteered to give a urine sample or hair sample for testing, assuming that your innocence made this a safe thing to do, only to have Annie Dookhan doing the testing.

Big Surveillance Plans for Small Towns

There have been a number of secret high-tech conferences held around the country recently, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Many of these have been in small towns and cities. Surveillance industry representatives and members of federal agencies attend, along with local police and other local law enforcement officials. The media is excluded.

The companies are there to sell their goods, and the federal employees are there to coordinate with the locals in their efforts to more closely monitor citizens. The newest forms of hidden cameras, along with microphones and other gear is being bought, often with grant money from federal agencies. For example, license-plate readers can now track the movements of thousands of residents in some cities, and the data collected might be around for years.

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