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Rooting through garbage has long been routine for investigators and spies (National Enquirer Publisher, Generoso Pope was once a CIA agent). These days, every cop loves to sift through people's trash to obtain probable cause for a search warrant or an arrest. A 1992 Department of Justice publication advised police officers that "Careful analysis of your target's trash, at either their residence or known businesses, should never be overlooked...as a source of intelligence." And, yes, you are important enough to become a target. Whether or not you think you are doing anything wrong, there are myriad ways to find yourself the subject of a police investigation. And these investigations quickly develop a kind of relentless momentum. The guy at your local photo processing booth is empowered--even required--to call the cops if he sees a nude child in one of your snapshots, so taking a picture of your kid in the bathtub may very well earn you a visit from two men wearing pointy shoes talking about "child pornography." This visit becomes part of a permanent record on a database accessible by countless people. Meanwhile, the proliferation of turn-in-a-neighbor hotlines and the more than 10,000 DARE officers instructing schoolchildren to inform on their parents, makes it possible for any jerk (even your own kid!) to get the cops interested in you. Nearly 20 million Americans are on the police NCIC (National Crime Information Computer)--the very one cops access from their patrol cars. Similar computers are used by the ATF, FBI and the IRS. Once the police are interested in you, your fate hinges on what they can learn about you--on what kind of evidence they can accumulate from your home and office. There are currently 1.5 million people in American prisons. Considering the possible danger and severe consequences, it's certainly worth taking precautions. Remember: the difference between a properly cautious guy who avoids trouble and a paranoid guy who is only imagining his fears is only apparent after it's too late. So first, let's start worrying about your mail. By asking for a "mail cover," the police may access and photocopy the outside of your first-class mail before you receive it. Second and Third class mail can be opened. But even if the police aren't onto you just yet, there's the "drug package profile" to trip you up. Like "drug courier profiles" applied to human beings, the exact definition of the profile is a secret, but the following criteria are known to be primary and if one of your parcels or letters fits one of these criteria, postal inspectors can issue themselves a search warrant to open it:
*If the package bears a handwritten mailing label. What's worse, private companies like Federal Express and UPS don't need any reason to inspect the contents of your letters or packages--and they don't bother with any secret profiles. They just actively cooperate with state surveillance of their customers (and will go so far as to permit police officers to impersonate their employees so they can get inside your house without a warrant). Unfortunately there's not much you can do to prevent the law from getting into your mail. Envelopes are easily steamed open. Using "security" envelopes, which have a dense pattern on the inside, makes it nearly impossible to read through the envelope by holding it up to the light or by spraying it with freon (which temporarily makes paper transparent)--but in the end, security envelopes can be ripped open then crudely stapled shut and passed off as another accident at the Post Office. Wax seals or tamper-evident tape just call attention to a letter and will receive the same treatment. It is better to disguise your mail by using different types of envelopes, stickers, various stamps, and randomly mailing from different zip codes. Better still, try using mail drops--those private address and forwarding services. You're supposed to fill out a form with your "real" address and show ID, but not everybody is so gung-ho about enforcing this. Forwarding mail through yet another service scuffs up the trail some more. But basically, the Post Office is not to be trusted. Since you cannot really protect the privacy of your mail, It is also essential that you stop the flow of "waste" information out of your home. By which I mean the paper trail created every time you have contact the outside world. By which I mean trash. Because it is waste paper in the form of receipts, bills, letters, diary entries and other documents that get 90% of people into trouble. So shred all your papers. All of them. Shredding only "sensitive" stuff makes the garbologist's job easier. Shred your junk mail, flyers, instructions from your new coffee maker, and anything else that comes to mind. But understand this may not be enough, as the folks at the American embassy in Tehran discovered when they were overrun in 1979. The Iranians obtained secret and supposedly "destroyed" information by simply matching up the quarter-inch strips to recreate the shredded documents. All it took was patience and it's no more difficult than a jigsaw puzzle. Some (expensive) cross-cut shredders chop the paper into bits of confetti, which makes this technique harder, but not impossible. So when you are done shredding, pour a little water and dish soap into the shredded papers and mulch it up with your hand. Soapy water is easy to use, isn't dangerous, and ultimately dissolves ink and paper. It also makes your shreddings stick together in a congealed lump when they dry. For an added touch, add ink or food coloring to the mess. Mix in your cat's feces or any other putrid materials. Never throw out a prescription bottle before obliterating the label. There's enough information on there for someone to deduce a lot about your personal life, sometimes your very personal life. Someone could even impersonate you and get you into a lot of trouble. Prescription labels aren't easy to remove, but will dissolve in acetone. They can also be defaced by melting with a butane lighter and/or spray-painting over the label with enamel. Be ready to destroy even encrypted data before it gets into the wrong hands. Store sensitive information on floppy disks away from your computer--if possible, away from your house. Disks are easier to destroy than hard drives. They can be zapped in a second with a bulk eraser or any strong magnet. The lowly disk is less obvious, too. Once erased and tossed back into a pile of innocuous fellow disks, it's hard to say which ones have been tampered with and which just need formatting. This protects you from a "destroying evidence" charge. Receipts for items that you have wisely hidden are real hard to explain. If you are renting a storage area to house your stolen art collection, please don't keep receipts for tax purposes, thinking that you can write off the cost of the rental. Destroy such documentation. This is almost the only way cops ever find these things out.
Finally, you should know that the past fifteen years of Supreme and
other court decisions have reduced our right to privacy to an
"expectation of privacy," while expanding the definition of "trash" to
include such things as the "waste heat" emanating from your own body.
This means that the police can park themselves across the street from
your house and, utilizing one of the many infra-red sensors sold by
security firms nationwide, peer through your walls and watch your waste
heat walking around. The equipment produces imagery so good that your
house becomes essentially transparent. |
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