Changes

'''Political profiling''' is an activity certain "watchdog" organizations engage in on various computer bulletin boards, chat rooms and wikis.  A internet user's postings under either their real life identity of pseudonym may be "profiled" for their ideological convictions based upon editing patterns, interests, subject matter, common references, or declared beliefs.  The profile is then pigeon-holed into predetermined character assessments published by the watchdog organizations.  Political profiling has been referred to as the rough equivalent of surveilling all Black males on the grounds that a certain percentage may commit violent crimes. In the sense that targeting minorities for special surveillance is called “racial profiling,” the so called "watchdog organizations" engage in "political profiling."  Some watchdog groups hold law enforcement conferences, seminars,  training  sessions, and publish manuals on this “profiling” behavior.  

'''Political profiling''' is an activity certain "watchdog" organizations engage in on various computer bulletin boards, chat rooms and wikis.  A internet user's postings under either their real life identity of pseudonym may be "profiled" for their ideological convictions based upon editing patterns, interests, subject matter, common references, or declared beliefs.  The profile is then pigeon-holed into predetermined character assessments published by the watchdog organizations.  Political profiling has been referred to as the rough equivalent of profiling all Black males on the grounds that a certain percentage may commit violent crimes. In the sense that targeting minorities for special surveillance is called “racial profiling,” the so called "watchdog organizations" engage in "political profiling."  Some watchdog groups hold law enforcement conferences, seminars,  training  sessions, and publish manuals on this “profiling” behavior.  

==Introduction==

==Introduction==

{{Cquote|no oversight, no requirements for probable cause prior to political spying, and no Privacy Act or Freedom of Information Act responsibilities to the public. By contrast, the FBI, CIA, and some major police departments in the U.S. are held accountable by various hard-won legal restrictions. <ref>Daniel Brandt, [http://www.namebase.org/news02.html ''Cyberspace Wars: Microprocessing vs. Big Brother''], NameBase NewsLine', No. 2, July-August 1993.</ref>}}

{{Cquote|no oversight, no requirements for probable cause prior to political spying, and no Privacy Act or Freedom of Information Act responsibilities to the public. By contrast, the FBI, CIA, and some major police departments in the U.S. are held accountable by various hard-won legal restrictions. <ref>Daniel Brandt, [http://www.namebase.org/news02.html ''Cyberspace Wars: Microprocessing vs. Big Brother''], NameBase NewsLine', No. 2, July-August 1993.</ref>}}

[[Walter James O'Brien refers]] to them as "civilian agencies." <ref>[http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/ Walter James O'Brien], [http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/nazism.pdf ''Nazism, the Internet and Culture of Violence,] A preliminary survey toward preventing a third world war'', 1999, pgs. 3, 6-9, 12, 14, 61, 63, 68.  Written to compete for the Trench Gascoigne Prize offered by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (http://www.rusi.org); retrieved from http://rjayco.com/ 06/10/07.</ref>  And Laird Wilcox uses similar language in discussing their activities,

[[Walter James O'Brien]] refers to them as "civilian agencies." <ref>[http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/ Walter James O'Brien], [http://www.rjayco.com/obrien/nazism.pdf ''Nazism, the Internet and Culture of Violence,] A preliminary survey toward preventing a third world war'', 1999, pgs. 3, 6-9, 12, 14, 61, 63, 68.  Written to compete for the Trench Gascoigne Prize offered by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (http://www.rusi.org); retrieved from http://rjayco.com/ 06/10/07.</ref>  And Laird Wilcox uses similar language in discussing their activities,

{{Cquote|Any citizen can obtain their FBI files through the Freedom of Information Act....There is no such mechanism by which a private American citizen can obtain their files compiled by private Watchdog organizations.... You cannot correct errors...  they may have obtained information that government agencies cannot legally collect on its own. This... is something that goes on all the time and represents a serious civil liberties issue. <ref>[http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/wilcox/5.html Laird Wilcox], ''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Editorial Research Service, 1999, pg. 15. ISBN 0-993592-96-5. </ref>}}

{{Cquote|Any citizen can obtain their FBI files through the Freedom of Information Act....There is no such mechanism by which a private American citizen can obtain their files compiled by private Watchdog organizations.... You cannot correct errors...  they may have obtained information that government agencies cannot legally collect on its own. This... is something that goes on all the time and represents a serious civil liberties issue. <ref>[http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/exhibits/wilcox/5.html Laird Wilcox], ''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Editorial Research Service, 1999, pg. 15. ISBN 0-993592-96-5. </ref>}}