The Obama administration wants to open financial data to more spy agencies than ever before.

FBI Headquarters
FBI Headquarters Aude, via Wikimedia Commons

Reuters has obtained a Treasury Department document that details giving intelligence agencies more access to financial information than ever before. Banks are already responsible for collecting and reporting information on suspicious transactions and passing that along to the FBI. Other intelligence agencies, though, like the CIA, have to specifically request that data on a case-by-case basis. The new Obama administration plan would change that, and instead give all U.S. intelligence agencies access to the same giant set of data the FBI already has.

Using financial records to catch criminals is an American tradition. Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone was famously caught for tax evasion after the Treasury Department pored over his financial records. The FBI has used financial data to track and freeze al Qaeda assets. The famous criminals caught or hindered this way are probably what the Obama administration wants people to have in mind when expanding access to this database.

The problem is that suspicious actions aren't the same thing as illegal actions, and while it's certainly unusual for someone to pay for something with $10,000 cash, it isn't inherently illegal, and there's a chance that something perfectly legal, just eccentric, gets flagged in this database. With just the FBI having access, that's a negligible risk, but with every intelligence agency working with the data, the chance of someone getting it wrong increases. This is always a problem when privacy protections are removed. Given past experience with over-broad and shared government lists of suspicious people, don't expect this to function smoothly.

16 Comments

As long as this doesn't affect other countries, I'm perfectly fine with this.

Might not be a bad idea to prosecute corrupt people in the banks first.

It's a move to help get control of the 401Ks

"Most transparent administration ever."

I guess when he promised that, he meant our lives would be more transparent to the government than ever before. So He can kindly make sure we are living our lives, teaching our kids, perusing the interests, and making the decisions He knows are best for us.

Hey... you think with this new-found information and this article's comment on taxes that they will use this to recover the millions of dollars owed by tax evaders in the Obama administration? Or the $3.5 Billion owed in taxes by all Federal Employees? No? Okay, just checking.

I guess the moral of the story is don't do anything illegal involving large sums of money or you may get caught and go to jail.

Eglektic,
I am curious. Have you read the aricle from the links I supplied? Has anyone read those articles or care?

Too much power is already held by the Federal government. This is even more. I can't spy on them, why can they spy on me? You can tell something is corrupt when they make something illegal for common citizens that they can do themselves.

Government isn't a benevolent existence. It's made of people just like you and me that are afflicted with the same emotions, thoughts, and temptations that you or I feel. Don't put too much trust in anyone that wants to do something to you that you can't do back. Just ask the Native american indians, Japanese-Americans in WWII, the German-Americans as well.

this article assumes that anyone who's going to be in this archive isn't in one anyways. our civil freedoms have already been infringed upon and we've done nothing, this database is only focusing on financial transactions and while it's breech is just as heinous i think i already know that the populace is going to do nothing about it.

but you know what? now that they have a compendium of my entire financial life for up to a year, they should do my fucking taxes while they're at it.

to mars or bust!

my co-worker's sister-in-law makes $62 hourly on the computer. She has been fired from work for six months but last month her check was $15619 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more here http://www.jump14.com

ghost, it's not a new database. It is an expansion of legal access to the existing database.

The security strategy apparently is to make the country so pathetic that nobody will have the stomach to harm any of its citizens.
And its working, I feel so sorry for them already.

So this is going to find the 9 trillion dollars the Fed 'lost', and the 2.3 trillion the Pentagon 'lost'; right?

If they could find one criminal scumbag's money, then how's about we go after our trillions? Seems like it would be easier for Osama to hide 300 mil than it would be to hide TENS OF TRILLIONS.

Sadly, this has nothing to do with any benefit for American citizens in general, and everything to do with giving all agencies access to the actual points of intrusion so they can go after those who've been publishing private and financial info on people in or associated with our government. They want to track those data streams to source, and they do not care how much obfuscation was used to hide the footprints, because they are bound and determined to get these people and Citizen's Rights be damned.

Politics said, everybody should have a home, so let’s loosen the laws for credit to the banks.

So the banks gave lots of loans to risky people they never should of, because the limits of risk were lowered by the government.

Guess, what, the bad risk loans failed, the banks failed and our government became shy to blame the true cause, themselves.

Now they couldn’t let the major banks fail, so goes the whole USA economy, so they bailed out the banks.

And for all those people who got loans in life, prior to being economically ready for such a big loan, to sad for you. You have bad credit now and your future opportunity for home is even less likely now. Also the government and banks are happy to refer to you as losers, the cause of the problem.

Now our friendly government is monitoring all conversations in the world in real time and with the change in the 9/11 laws can put you in jail without a court order.

To add to this, let’s start making laws to limit guns from the people as well.

Now worries, our government can't balance a budget in 5 years or ignored the deficit for 20 plus years. Though they did create the law for the fiscal cliff in agreement; what's up with that.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, global warming continues and the world population rises, with world food and clean water harder to find.

..................

Perhaps you asking what is my point. Our government is not our friend and you best figure out a way to take care of yourself, family, because our national support system is broken.

You can't balance a budget you never submitted. Keep in mind that this administration has zero interest in fiscal responsibility.

12 years after 9/11, we have an entire hierarchy of laws that destroy the rights of the average citizen, but none that truly target terrorist types specifically. The government solution has been to ever broaden the definition of a terrorist to the point that they can now hold nearly anybody indefinitely without trial.

And this president has been far worse than all others where attacking our rights is concerned, despite many campaign promises to prevent our government from indulging in this behavior. Basically a stereotypical bag of wind.

Just remember that having your name on a birth certificate which states you were born in Hawaii does not necessarily make you an American. American is not a nationality defined by where you live. It's a nationality defined by how you believe, think, and act. It's a mindset. If this president does not understand this, then he's not an American, and should be removed from office with prejudice. These points are all moot though, because he has openly admitted he is not an American by proposing, or backing proposed legislation of this nature.

It's time to wake up people! He wants to buy light tanks for DHS too. Why would we need a law enforcement agency that uses tanks?



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