Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/148061
Voices Hot Buttons Clamp down on homeland spying NSA fairly lopsided results in favor of limitations on the much-debated NSA spying effort, commentary illustrated some divisions among drivers on Overdrive's Facebook page (Facebook.com/ OverdriveTrucking). "Goes to show our own government doesn't trust its own people," wrote Nate Podosek of his view of the NSA program. Britt Drukin got a good laugh out of that one: "I don't trust our own people either," he wrote. "Keep it up, NSA." On Twitter, @TwoDogs_aMule shot back to @OverdriveUpdate with a little circumspection about just how intrusive the NSA spying program really was: "Now the normal citizen can feel our What's your view of NSA's broad collection of U.S. citizens' phone/Internet data? OverdriveOnline.com poll. Very few Overdrive readers thought that the National Security Agency's program for collection of U.S. citizens' Internet- and phoneactivity data was appropriately broad. A large majority favor shuttering the program entirely. "He who gives up liberty for security deserves neither," reader Lance Krouse wrote in commentary under the poll at OverdriveOnline.com, paraphrasing a quote often attributed to founding father Benjamin Franklin. Though polling showed It should be shut down immediately It should be more narrowly focused 29% 60% It's necessary to combat terrorist activity 7% 4% Not sure pain of being watched and even having to log every time we stop [to use the bathroom]. E-logs, DOT checkpoints every 100 miles, dashcams, etc. NSA's info scheme is still less intrusive than our normal day!" NSA leaker cleared by … guess who The security-clearance check on Edward Snowden, the man who leaked the domestic spying program's existence, was performed by none other than USIS. That's a corporate sibling of HireRight Solutions, the company that provides DAC reports. There's a small industry devoted to fighting the data sold by HireRight, which specializes in background screening for transportation jobs. And just last August, the company agreed to pay $2.6 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to assure the maximum possible accuracy of information it provided, failing to give consumers copies of their reports and failing to reinvestigate disputes. In addition to the penalty, the settlement put things in place to change how HireRight does business. When it comes to vetting applicants for top-secret jobs, maybe the process could use some change, too. At a recent Senate Homeland Security hearing, the inspector general for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said USIS itself is under investi- Watch for our Hot Button questions and have your political voice heard at: gation. "Yes, we do believe that there may be some problems," the IG testified. Committee member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also mentioned an investigation into the company's "systematic failure to adequately conduct investigations." Maybe truck drivers should apply for Top Secret clearance before employment. That should look good on a resumé — and then they could claim their Preemployment Screening Program (PSP) records were classified. — Overdrive Senior Editor Kevin Jones Facebook.com/OverdriveTrucking @OverdriveUpdate 12 | Overdrive | August 2013 Voices_0813.indd 12 7/29/13 10:25 PM