Le Jacquelope
Loves Spam
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- Apr 9, 2003
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Republicans who read this thread would rather not discuss this. They hate citizens' privacy rights. It erodes at the powers of the corporate state and the totalitarian Big Brotherism that they're pushing in the name of the war on terror.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,72549-0.html
Hillary: The Privacy Candidate?
By Sarah Lai Stirland| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jan, 24, 2007
The issue of digital-era privacy did not make it to the top of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's legislative to-do list at the Saturday launch of her presidential campaign. But for those who look, the New York Democrat has clearly staked out her positions on the esoteric subject, and they're sending electronic civil libertarians' hearts a twitter.
Clinton, the presidential front-runner among Democrats in way-early polling, addressed electronic privacy issues at a constitutional law conference in Washington, D.C. last June. There she unveiled a proposed "Privacy Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, give Americans the right to know what's being done with their personal information, and offer consumers an unprecedented level of control over how that data is used.
"At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date," Clinton said.
These ideas have long been championed by consumer groups and civil liberties advocates, but are largely strangers to presidential campaigns. Other Democrats who have announced presidential exploratory committees for the 2008 election -- including Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards -- have worked on privacy issues through their careers as government officials. But Clinton's approach is notable for its range and detail, say privacy advocates.
"Sen. Clinton's plan is well-informed and the most sophisticated statement in recent years by a presidential candidate on privacy issues," said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law. "She grasps consumers' frustrations with the annoyance of direct marketing, but also the more important point that a lack of privacy can lead to lost opportunities and oppressive social control."
Clinton's stance on consumer privacy hearkens back to the debates of the '90s when Congress and the public began agonizing over the question of who should wield the most control over consumers' transactional data. Her general policy position is that companies should cede more control to consumers, and that new legislation should be enacted to make it easier for consumers to recover monetary damages from companies that violate their privacy policies.
For example, Clinton said that financial companies as a rule should not be allowed to share consumers' transactional information without first obtaining their permission. Under current law, financial institutions freely share certain kinds of customer information unless consumers specifically opt-out.
But some observers are doubtful of Clinton's ability -- whether as senator, or commander-in-chief -- to garner widespread support for what would amount to a complete reversal of a decade of privacy-hostile laws and policies spewing from Washington.
"The reality (of her proposals) is that they would almost turn the information economy inside out -- it's like saying, 'OK, now the water in the stream is going to flow in the other direction,'" said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian think tank The Cato Institute. "It's easy to imagine, but changing the way information moves in the economy is very, very hard to do."
"I think that over time that these ideas will reemerge (and gain momentum)," said Marc Rotenberg, the Electronic Privacy Information Center's executive director, who adds that the second half of this congressional session will provide the senator with many opportunities to support privacy-related legislation.1
Legal and technical checks on government snooping and well-managed data collection policies would also get a boost under Clinton's regime. Among other things, her plan calls for the restoration of a White House privacy czar -- a position that was last held by current Ohio State University law professor Peter Swire under Clinton's husband's tenure as president.
Swire noted in an interview that privacy issues are inextricably tied to health care and its efficient management and delivery -- a No. 1 topic on the Clinton agenda.
"Hillary is an expert in health care -- she even did joint sessions with Newt Gingrich on building electronic health records," he says. "One of the trickiest problems is building a safe and secure system."
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,72549-0.html
Hillary: The Privacy Candidate?
By Sarah Lai Stirland| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jan, 24, 2007
The issue of digital-era privacy did not make it to the top of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's legislative to-do list at the Saturday launch of her presidential campaign. But for those who look, the New York Democrat has clearly staked out her positions on the esoteric subject, and they're sending electronic civil libertarians' hearts a twitter.
Clinton, the presidential front-runner among Democrats in way-early polling, addressed electronic privacy issues at a constitutional law conference in Washington, D.C. last June. There she unveiled a proposed "Privacy Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, give Americans the right to know what's being done with their personal information, and offer consumers an unprecedented level of control over how that data is used.
"At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date," Clinton said.
These ideas have long been championed by consumer groups and civil liberties advocates, but are largely strangers to presidential campaigns. Other Democrats who have announced presidential exploratory committees for the 2008 election -- including Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards -- have worked on privacy issues through their careers as government officials. But Clinton's approach is notable for its range and detail, say privacy advocates.
"Sen. Clinton's plan is well-informed and the most sophisticated statement in recent years by a presidential candidate on privacy issues," said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law. "She grasps consumers' frustrations with the annoyance of direct marketing, but also the more important point that a lack of privacy can lead to lost opportunities and oppressive social control."
Clinton's stance on consumer privacy hearkens back to the debates of the '90s when Congress and the public began agonizing over the question of who should wield the most control over consumers' transactional data. Her general policy position is that companies should cede more control to consumers, and that new legislation should be enacted to make it easier for consumers to recover monetary damages from companies that violate their privacy policies.
For example, Clinton said that financial companies as a rule should not be allowed to share consumers' transactional information without first obtaining their permission. Under current law, financial institutions freely share certain kinds of customer information unless consumers specifically opt-out.
But some observers are doubtful of Clinton's ability -- whether as senator, or commander-in-chief -- to garner widespread support for what would amount to a complete reversal of a decade of privacy-hostile laws and policies spewing from Washington.
"The reality (of her proposals) is that they would almost turn the information economy inside out -- it's like saying, 'OK, now the water in the stream is going to flow in the other direction,'" said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian think tank The Cato Institute. "It's easy to imagine, but changing the way information moves in the economy is very, very hard to do."
"I think that over time that these ideas will reemerge (and gain momentum)," said Marc Rotenberg, the Electronic Privacy Information Center's executive director, who adds that the second half of this congressional session will provide the senator with many opportunities to support privacy-related legislation.1
Legal and technical checks on government snooping and well-managed data collection policies would also get a boost under Clinton's regime. Among other things, her plan calls for the restoration of a White House privacy czar -- a position that was last held by current Ohio State University law professor Peter Swire under Clinton's husband's tenure as president.
Swire noted in an interview that privacy issues are inextricably tied to health care and its efficient management and delivery -- a No. 1 topic on the Clinton agenda.
"Hillary is an expert in health care -- she even did joint sessions with Newt Gingrich on building electronic health records," he says. "One of the trickiest problems is building a safe and secure system."
