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New bill protects privacy
The judiciary committee on Tuesday approved
the Federal Agency Protection of Privacy
Act. The bill requires Federal agencies,
when proposing any regulation that may have
a significant privacy impact on individuals,
to publish a “privacy impact analysis” which
will describe how the regulation will impact
the privacy of individuals. The bill also
states that the agency use “specified techniques
to assure the individuals have been given
an opportunity to participate in the rulemaking.”
This bill, though not enough to extinguish
fears regarding the endangerment of privacy,
does seem to offer a shred of hope to a
country that has allowed activities in the
name of “national security” to undermine
constitutional rights.
In October of last year, just six weeks
after the Sept. 11 tragedy, President Bush
signed the USA Patriot Act, a bill that
allows investigators increased freedom to
track and monitor Internet usage and tap
telephones when attempting to track down
suspected terrorists.
According to the American Civil Liberties
Union’s Web site, “Congress moved unnecessarily
and irresponsibly quickly on this legislation.”
The USA Patriot Act has been widely criticized
by civil libertarians partially because
it was passed in such haste and because
it has the potential to extensively effect
not only terrorists or suspected terrorists
but average non-terrorist, American citizens
as well.
The USA Patriot Act is not the only development
since Sept. 11 that could compromise privacy.
The Department of Justice has also developed
a system called Operation TIPS (Terrorist
Information and Prevention System) which,
according to the Operation TIPS Web site,
was created “for the stated purpose of creating
a national information sharing system for
specific industry groups to report suspicious,
publicly observable activity that could
be related to terrorism.”
Operation TIPS may theoretically sound like
a great idea, the system will recruit volunteers
all over the country to observe behavior
and call anything suspicious into a hotline.
The frightening part is that the volunteer
workers include, but are not limited to,
postal workers, meter readers, other utility
personnel, and anyone else who could have
access to private homes. The usage of these
workers should worry you. These people who
are not trained investigators, are basically
being given the go ahead to spy on people.
Privacy is an issue of utmost importance
especially after Sept. 11, which brought
out so much anger and desire to hunt down
the people who harmed us that the concept
of privacy was put aside. However, privacy
is not something that can be ignored. The
more privacy impacting measures and regulations
that are brought about, the easier it becomes
to continue to introduce more, and the harder
it becomes to regain what privacy we once
had.
The Federal Agency Protection of Privacy
Act does not actually prohibit privacy-intrusive
proposals but what it does, requiring federal
agencies to publish a “privacy impact analysis,”
is a step in the right direction toward
the protection of privacy.
On CNET News.com an article by Declan McCullagh
quoted Rep. Bob Barr, the author of the
bill, “This bill will not only make the
federal government more accountable to the
American people, but it will also serve
to slow the growing erosion of citizens
privacy rights.”
This bill is a greatly needed measure toward
assuring that Americans know how government
regulations will impact their personal privacy.
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