In 1755, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Centuries later, we face numerous attacks on our privacy and civil rights, ostensibly for national security. Phone calls are tapped, e-mails are read, and individuals are tracked by video surveillance. We’re told that if you’re not for these invasive surveillance tactics, then you’re with the terrorists. Privacy Lives rejects such fear mongering. This site will chronicle and analyze these attacks and various defenses against them to show that privacy lives on, despite this onslaught.

For Melissa Ngo’s consulting and speaking rates and availability, e-mail her at: privacy AT privacylives.com

Melissa Ngo is a Privacy and Information Policy Consultant and the publisher of Privacy Lives, “monitoring the pulse of privacy.” NOTE: The opinions on Privacy Lives are those of Melissa Ngo; these are not necessarily the opinions of her clients and should not be attributed to them.

She appears frequently in print and broadcast stories about privacy and civil liberty issues (she has been interviewed on ABC News, CNN, C-SPAN, and NPR, among others). Ngo has testified about privacy and civil liberties before legislators and government agencies, and she discusses such issues at academic, policy, and trade conferences. Prior to publishing Privacy Lives, Ngo was Senior Counsel and Director of the Identification and Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non-profit research education center in Washington, DC. At EPIC, she worked on a variety of civil liberty issues, such as anonymity, biometrics, camera surveillance, DNA and medical privacy, and terrorist watch lists. She also directed the EPIC law student internship program and the Amicus Curiae Brief project.

Melissa Ngo also was a Visiting Scholar at the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program, where she worked on border security, camera surveillance, DNA, open government, and international privacy, among other issues. She also was a Visiting Fellow at the Identity Project where she worked on biometric ID systems, identification card programs (WHTI, REAL ID, among others), and domestic and international traveler profiling issues (watch lists, ATS, PNR).

Ngo is the author of a chapter entitled You Are Being Watched But Not Protected: The Myth of Security Under Camera Surveillance in the book “Intersection: Sidewalks & Public Space” (ChainLinks 2008). She also co-authored a white paper on the national identification debate, REAL ID Implementation Review: Few Benefits, Staggering Costs (May 2008). She also is co-editor of “Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws (FOIA) 2006” (EPIC 2006).

Ngo previously worked as a journalist at USATODAY.com and The Washington Post. She is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Georgetown University Law Center.

Select materials by Melissa Ngo:

Presentation on “Camera Surveillance and Security: Separating Truth From Myth,” at the University of Delaware School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy in Newark, DE, November 6, 2008.

Video of the panel discussion “The End of Anonymity? Threats to Privacy in a Brave New World,” at the American Constitution Society National Convention 2008 in Washington, DC, June 14, 2008.

Testimony about “Video Interoperability for Public Safety” (“VIPS”) program before the Public Safety & the Judiciary Committee of the DC Council, June 2, 2008

Amicus curiae brief in Herring v. US (concerning a faulty arrest based on incorrect information in a government database), May 16, 2008 (Co-counsel)

White paper, REAL ID Implementation Review: Few Benefits, Staggering Costs, May 13, 2008 (Co-author)

Amicus curiae brief in NCTA v. FCC (concerning privacy of customer proprietary network information (CPNI)), May 6, 2008 (Co-counsel)

Chapter entitled You Are Being Watched But Not Protected: The Myth of Security Under Camera Surveillance in the book “Intersection: Sidewalks & Public Space” (ChainLinks 2008) (Chapter author)

Analysis of New Hampshire HB 686 (concerning the use of RFID technology), April 14, 2008

Testimony about “SB 293 and RFID Technology” before the Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee, March 17, 2008

Statement to the DC Council on Bill 17-438 (concerning camera surveillance systems), March 11, 2008

Op-Ed against the use of surveillance cameras with facial recognition, “System flawed, raises civil-liberty issues,” The Tennessean, December 21, 2007

Presentation on “CCTV: Developing Privacy Best Practices,” at a Public Workshop, hosted by the
Department of Homeland Security
 Privacy Office, 
Arlington, VA, 
December 18, 2007

Amicus curiae brief in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board (concerning photo identification requirements for voters), November 13, 2007 (Co-counsel)

Amicus curiae brief in IMS Health Inc. v. Ayotte (concerning the use of prescriber-identifiable data for targeted marketing), August 20, 2007 (Co-counsel)

Presentation on “Border Security and How It Affects Domestic Violence Victims” at SafetyNet Training of Trainers, hosted by National Network to End Domestic Violence,
 Kansas City, MO,
 August 13-17, 2007

Panel on “CPNI Compliance — the clock is ticking!” 
hosted by the
Federal Communications Bar Association,
 Washington, DC,
 June 28, 2007

Presentation on “The Increasing Use of RFID,” at the Security and Liberty Forum, hosted by the NC-ACLU,
 Chapel Hill, NC,
 April 14, 2007

Panel on “RFID in Public Safety and Homeland Security Applications” at the International Wireless Communications Expo,
 Las Vegas, NV,
 March 28, 2007

Testimony about “DHS Proposed Regulations to Implement REAL ID” before the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security, March 21, 2007

Testimony at a hearing on “Maryland Senate Joint Resolution 5: REAL ID Act of 2005 — Protest and Repeal” Before the Judicial Proceedings Committee of the Maryland Senate, February 15, 2007

“Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws (FOIA) 2006” (EPIC 2006) (Co-editor)

Presentation on “Implications of Surveillance Technologies Upon Civil Liberties” at Informatik und Rüstung hosted by Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung (FIfF), Berlin, Germany, 
September 29-30, 2006

Presentation on “Security Problems of REAL ID Databases” at Identity Theft & REAL ID: A Town Hall, hosted by ACLU-Southern Calif., Occidental College
in Los Angeles, CA,
September 21, 2006

Presentation on “CCTV and Security Falsehoods” at DC Citizens’ Crime Summit, hosted by ACLU-National Capital Area, Washington DC,
September 18, 2006

Amicus curiae brief in Johnson v. Quander (concerning compelled collection for DNA databases), June 30, 2006 (Co-counsel)

Presentation on “Surveillance: I Spy with My Big Eye” at Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2006, Washington, DC, May 4, 2006

Presentation on “Biometric IDs: A Solution to the Identity Problem, or a Bigger Problem?” at International Association of Privacy Professionals National Summit,
 Washington, DC, March 9, 2006

Amicus curiae brief in Kohler v. Englade (concerning the unsuccessful use of DNA dragnets to fight crime), October 11, 2005 (Co-counsel)

Spotlight on Surveillance (analyses of federal and state surveillance programs) (2005-2007)