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A law that was allegedly passed in response to corporate accounting scandals like Enron's and Worldcom's is now being used far outside of its original intentions:
A lot of Internet users delete their browser history and clear their cache and cookies.
It's just one of those things you do — some more often than others — if you own and use a computer.
"If you don't clear this information, it's there for someone to come along and retrieve — either by sitting down at your computer or remotely if you visit vicious websites or get a virus," said a Patrol Tech expert.
But the recent Boston Marathon bombing trial has brought to light a law, ratified in 2002, that could land you with a federal charge of obstructing justice for — wait for it — clearing your browser history.
Techdirt points out some of the serious problems with this chilling precedent:
In a hypothetical posed recently (containing a real-world example), finding yourself in possession of child pornography poses a serious dilemma. Possession is a crime, but so is destruction of evidence. Sarbanes-Oxley demands the preservation of evidence in "foreseeable" investigations, and child porn possession is one of those crimes no law enforcement agency ignores.
The article over at Dailykos covers the relevant section of the law, along with other details:
Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under title 11, or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
The spirit of this law seems to be just another way to criminalize spoliation, but like too many laws in the post-9/11 world its written overly broad and rarely, if ever, used for its stated purpose. It scares me to see that simply performing maintenance on your computer, or worse being the victim of a CP-rickroll, will land you in prison no matter what you do. Is there anything we can do to stop this creeping totalitarianism, or is the police state already so entrenched that the only option left is to abandon ship?
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Thursday June 11 2015, @09:07PM
From the TechDirt article:
It seems to me it is no leap at all to apply this logic to encrypted data. I use whole disk encryption -- many people do. Presumably, the data on my drive is just drivel without the passphrase which I'm not required to give up under the 5th amendment. However, if I don't give up the password, the data is as good as deleted to an investigator -- at least that is the argument that could be made and considering the authoritarian trend in all branches of government, that argument would probably get a lot of traction.
This is really worrying. Comments above me are quick to say "oh, it's no big deal because these guys committed some crime" and so forth, but remember that we live in a country where the number of Federal crimes is uncountable -- literally unknowable (and ignorance of the law is no excuse -- Yossarian [wikipedia.org] would be deeply impressed): http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304319804576389601079728920 [wsj.com]
That our criminal code can be used as a means of repression rather than protecting society from bad actors, is nothing new, and for Federal prosecutors, it's all just a game:
If that doesn't terrify you when taken in recognition that most everyone commits a Federal felony on a daily basis, you aren't really thinking this out. http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229 [amazon.com] Especially when we live in a country that assumes the right to execute people without trial for publishing anti-American youtube videos. http://www.salon.com/2011/09/30/awlaki_6/ [salon.com]
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Friday June 12 2015, @01:40AM
It's nothing new. My sig in English: "Give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, and I will find something in them that will hang him." They've been doing that since the days of good ol' Cardinal Richelieu.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday June 12 2015, @06:11AM
I count 7 lines there, Bro. You're pau (look for pau Hawaiian)
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 12 2015, @03:00AM
>considering the authoritarian trend in all branches of government, that argument would probably get a lot of traction.
Your only option is a violent revolution, obedience, or death/living hell.
If you do not like America, leave America, or overthrow America.
It's been done once before and tried twice.