EFF Urges Supreme Court to Block NASA's Invasive Background Checks

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged the United States
Supreme Court Monday to uphold an appeals court decision that blocks
invasive and unnecessary background checks at the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA), arguing that the over-collection of
personal data puts employees' privacy at risk.

The case was originally filed by federal contract employees working
at CalTech's Jet Propulsion Lab, which houses NASA's robotic spacecraft
laboratory. The workers were low-risk, by NASA's own admission, and did
not work on classified projects. Yet the government instituted sweeping
background checks, including a requirement to list three references who
were then questioned about the employees' general behavior. NASA said it
needed the information to assess "suitability" for government
employment, and would check factors like "carnal knowledge,"
"homosexuality," "cohabitation," and "illegitimate children."

"Many of these CalTech employees have worked at the JPL for decades,
but now NASA is asking their references open-ended questions in search
of derogatory information," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien.
"This technique is sadly familiar -- in the McCarthy era, federal
employees had to disclose personal facts via personnel forms as part of
loyalty programs -- and has no place in the United States today."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of the
employees, enjoining NASA from collecting any more personal data, but
the government appealed. In an amicus brief filed Monday, EFF argues
that the Supreme Court should uphold the 9th Circuit's decision in order
to protect workers' constitutional rights.

"These background checks capture all sorts of sensitive personal
information that's totally unnecessary for low-level employees who don't
work on national security matters," said EFF Civil Liberties Director
Jennifer Granick. "Meanwhile, there are gaping loopholes in the legal
safeguards in place to protect this very sensitive information. As
technology makes it easier to collect and aggregate vast amounts of
data, we must be particularly cautious to prevent government misuse."

For the full amicus brief:
https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/nasa_v_nelson/nasavnelsonamicus.pdf