The Color of Privacy

In April, EPIC announced the establishment of a Privacy Threat Index to track what it sees as the growing erosion of privacy by government surveillance.

By Daintry Duffy

July 01, 2003 — CSO — Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) clearly wasn't complimenting the Department of Homeland Security when it imitated its color-coded threat advisory system.

In April, EPIC announced the establishment of a Privacy Threat Index to track what it sees as the growing erosion of privacy by government surveillance. The Privacy Threat Index mimics the Homeland Security bar chart with green, blue, yellow, orange and red signaling low, guarded, elevated, high and severe threat conditions, respectively.

At its announcement, EPIC assessed the current threat to privacy at a yellow condition, citing some of the following factors:

• Expanded use of the Foreign Surveillance Act, which permits the government to conduct surveillance without the safeguards afforded by the Fourth Amendment.
• Increased funding for surveillance systems, such as immigration control and video surveillance.
• Consideration of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, termed by some Patriot II, which would expand the government's ability to conduct surveillance.

Read more about data privacy in CSOonline's Data Privacy section.

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