[FedCom] PRIVACY

[Mr T. Rascially]

Earlier discussions talked about restrictions on scanning and the
Patrioy Act.
Here are sources of US law, public notice of hearings, and in process
law making/

Federal Register Daily notice Index
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/
Federal Leislation Research  http:/www.law.cornell.edu/uscode   or
Library of Congress  http://thomas.loc.gov/
FCC     http://www.fcc.gov/ntia  (backspace "ntia" to get home page)

<?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?|?| FORWARD
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OPINION: Fight for Your Right to Privacy
http://newsmax.com

Apr 23, 2002 (NewsFactor.com via COMTEX) --Last week, I attended the
Computers, Freedom Privacy Conference, where I  heard four days of
discussion and debate among attorneys, corporate leaders, politicians
and privacy advocates over issues of civil liberties, privacy and
commerce.

I came away from that very enlightening conference with a rather
pessimistic conclusion: Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) CEO Scott
McNealy was
correct when he said, "You have zero privacy anyway," to a group of
reporters in January 1999.

However, I stop far short of McNealy's suggestion that we should "get
over it."

Let's Get It On!

On the contrary, I suggest that we all consider getting on it and taking
a wild ride to protect what little privacy we still have in an attempt
to regain ground lost
since September 11th.

Aside from the deaths of innocents, the worst thing about 9/11 was
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison's call for a national ID card,
which was echoed
by less enlightened members of Congress.

That concept was discussed in great detail at last week's conference by
software litigation consultant Andrew Schulman.

Preserving Privacy

California State Senator Jackie Speier also spoke at the conference
about her proposed legislation, which seeks to curb financial
institutions' efforts to sell
private citizens' financial data to other companies. Californians have a
fighting chance to preserve privacy with Speier working to pass privacy
initiatives in the state senate.

But I don't see any serious national privacy advocates within the
federal government; instead, most legislators listen when money talks
before they listen to
public opinion. Although there is furious activity surrounding this
issue, there is no clear leader.

Setting Goals

The Patriot Act, at its heart, had national security and protection from
terrorism as clearly laudable goals. Despite these good intentions, some
unintended
consequences occurred when politicians acted on emotion rather than
reason, and attached privacy-eroding amendments to the legislation.

Fortunately, organizations are fighting for privacy on the national
level. They are the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(http://www.epic.com),
Consumer Action , the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Jason Catlett's
JunkBusters . Each of these groups is working hard to protect the public
privacy
interest.

Privacy Everywhere

At the conference I attended, there were sessions on medical privacy,
financial privacy, Web anonymity, national ID cards and constitutional
freedoms, as well as a gripping discussion about the "Digital Divide"
from Larry Irving (the technology activist who coined the term).

Speakers included IT leaders from healthcare organizations, CEOs and
vice presidents from major corporations, privacy  advocates from
respected
organizations, and attorneys and politicians of every stripe.

A universal concern among speakers and participants was the lack of
consumer and public discourse and education on privacy issues. People
show nearly
universal disregard for intrusions into privacy until they are
personally threatened with exposure of their own private, personally
identifiable
information.

Here's an Example

One telling example was a comment from an audience member during a QA
period following a panel discussion. He noted that  convenience is the
friend of
privacy intrusion. The individual stated flatly that the idea that we
don't like
being targeted is wrong.

We love being targeted -- until we start to realize that it is
happening. At that point, our concern rises dramatically. The audience
member referred to how
"cookies" make our Web surfing experience faster and easier when we are
recognized by sites we've visited before, which fill in personal data by
referencing the cookies set on previous visits.

 It was agreed that it takes a major blunder by business -- in which
privacy information is violated, sold or mutilated-- before public
outcry leads to privacy policy enforcement or action.

Last week, when Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) changed its privacy policy to
allow e-mail, snail mail and even phone calls from its "partners,"
online privacy
advocates raised a small fuss.

Unfortunately, even the TRUSTe seal program went along with Yahoo! on
that blunder by approving the move and allowing continued seal program
approval.

I hope that Oracle's Ellison is wrong when he says, "Privacy is already
gone." The conference was reassuring because it became clear that there
are advocates for reasoned discourse and measured action on the most
important privacy issues.

Author's background: Mike Banks Valentine moderates the I-Privacy
Discussion List at http://www.adventive.com/lists/iprivacy/summary.html
. Mike can be reached in response to this column by e-mailing him at
learn@website101.com