Forwarded email warns users not to accept the terms of service agreement at Cars.gov, the website of the federal 'Cash for Clunkers' program, because it supposedly grants the government full ownership of and access to users' computers.
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: July 2009
Status: Partly true / Outdated
Example #1:
Email contributed by Eileen, Aug. 3, 2009:
FW: DO NOT GO TO CARS.GOV
I must apologize to you for sending out a mass email, but this is so important I had to. Please accept my apologizes. If you receive this twice I'm sorry I'm sending this to everyone in my email address book.
Under no circumstances should you go to Cars.gov. That is the new cash for clunkers program. IF YOU DO YOU WILL GIVE THE GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER FOR ANY REASON THAT THEY WANT TO. Don't believe me check out this video.
Watch the whole video and please don't judge the video based on the messenger!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-0RJTfRSAo
Example #2:
Email contributed by Leszek S., Aug. 3, 2009:
Subject: Fwd: URGENT!! Don't Sign on to cars.gov "Cash for Clunkers"
Very Important- Please read
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs12ccbOiE
Catch Glenn Beck on Fox News today if you can. I’m watching on DVR, but he’s on again on the West Coast at 11PM.
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T ACCEPT THE PRIVACY AND SECURITY AGREEMENT on the cars.gov website, relating to the cash for clunkers program. If you read the agreement (which I doubt most of us do!) it says:
"This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the U.S. Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS DoT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."
If you agree to this, they can tap in anytime they want and seize any or all information on your computer! Once they’ve tapped in to your system, they can continue to track you basically forever!!
If you use Skype or some other internet phone system, and you’re logged on to this system while you’re on the phone, they can legally listen to your phone calls. They can check out which internet sites you visit ... and it’s all perfectly legal if you click continue and accept the Privacy and Security Agreement.
This is very broad , and is all perfectly legal. Glenn is going to do more on this Monday, so be sure to watch or DVR that show.
It's all getting scarier and scarier ... we’ve got to get this stuff stopped!
Analysis: What's true in the above is that for an unspecified period of time car dealers participating in the U.S. Department of Transportation's "Cash for Clunkers" program encountered the following warning upon accessing the program's vendors-only website:
This application provides access to the DOT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and is property of the United States government... users have no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorized CARS, DOT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign. By using this system, the user consents to such interception, monitoring, recording, copying, auditing, inspection, and disclosure at the discretion CARS or the DOT personnel.No laughing matter. Nor is it especially comforting to know that only registered dealerships, not the general public, were confronted with the message. It has since been changed.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a watchdog group focusing on free speech and privacy issues on the Internet, the terms of service language was not only "careless" and "overreaching" but also legally unenforceable and technically dubious:
Clicking "continue" on a poorly worded Terms of Service on a government site will not give the government the ability to "tap into your system... any time they want." The seizure of the personal and private information stored on your computer through a one-sided click-through terms of service is not “conscionable” as lawyers say, and would not be enforceable even if the cars.gov website was capable of doing it, which we seriously doubt. Moreover, the law has long forbidden the government from requiring you to give up unrelated constitutional rights (here the 4th Amendment right to be free from search and seizure) as a condition of receiving discretionary government benefits like participation in the Cars for Clunkers program.As of this writing, the revised terms of service language is more like what one typically finds on government websites and reads as follows:
You are accessing a U.S. Government information system. This information system, including all related equipment, networks, and network devices, is provided for U.S. Government-authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use of this system is prohibited, and may result in civil and criminal penalties, or administrative disciplinary action. The communications and data stored or transiting this system may be, for any lawful Government purpose, monitored, recorded, and subject to audit or investigation. By using this system, you understand and consent to such terms.
Email This Article
Sources and further reading:
Proof Positive that One Can Affect Change
Glenn Beck (FoxNews.com), 3 August 2009
Cars.gov Terms of Service: What Glenn Beck Gets Right and Wrong
Electronic Frontier Foundation, 3 August 2009
Last updated 08/07/09
