In some earlier posts on carnivore and echelon it was discussed how merely using certain key words or phrases could get your email added to a database or watch list. Some said it could do no harm because once the mail was looked at, the agency would see you were not a terrorist so this couldn’t possibly affect the innocent.

So let the madness begin:

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http://www.banktech.com/story/BSTeNews/BNK20020308S0008

The USA PATRIOT Act gave financial institutions and government agencies unprecedented leeway to share information.

Following up with the details, the Treasury published its proposed regulations for information sharing in the Federal Register on Feb. 26th, which marks the start of a 30-day comment period before the groundbreaking regulations take effect. The regulations describe how information will be shared between law enforcement agencies and financial institutions, and how financial institutions and associations can share information amongst themselves.

The new rules will create significant opportunities for financial technology firms to create linkages between the customer databases spanning the financial services industry, if only for the purpose of sharing suspicions held about their customers. It's an open question as to which industry associations or networks will take the lead in developing the communications networks permitted under the new regulations.

In the meantime, leading industry participants are preparing comments for the Treasury, mindful of the additional burdens that may be asked of financial services firms. "We're pleased that there was a provision in the PATRIOT Act that encouraged information sharing, both from the government to the banks, and from one bank to another bank, because we think that will be very helpful in dealing with money laundering issues and other illegal activity," said Norm Nelson, general counsel of the New York Clearing House, a payments processor owned by several U.S. affiliates of leading commercial banks. "We hope that it doesn't get applied in such a way that it's an additional, burdensome record keeping and reporting requirement, but instead that it'll foster banks being able to find out more from the law enforcement people as to the things that they should be looking for." …

Under the proposed regulations, Federal law enforcement agencies would supply FinCEN with the names of individuals, entities or organizations "reasonably suspected based on credible evidence" of engaging in money laundering or terrorist activities

No other action would be required of the financial institution under the proposed regulations, meaning that the bank could continue to do business as usual with the suspected terrorist or suspected money launderer. However, that's not likely.

Banks would have explicit permission to use FinCEN's information to determine whether to establish or maintain an account, or to engage in a transaction. That means a bank could close an account based on FinCEN's information--as long as the former account holder wasn't told that FinCEN was involved.

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So now you can be ‘black balled’ financially based upon suspicion. No due process. Don’t forget hackers are considered terrorists under the patriot act. If your emails can make you ‘reasonably suspect’ like you mail someone ‘proof of concept’ code, you can pretty much kiss a good life goodbye. Do you think sally mae’s gonna help you out?

You’ve got 30 days from Feb. 26th, to make some noise (write your rep., tell your friends) or this is just the beginning.