The following report is from the electronic newsletter which I am now receiving from the Coalition For Constitutional Liberties, the Washington D.C. group MEAF joined last summer. The database sharing of fingerprints and criminal--and, it seems, non-criminal--records appears to be only one of a number of vulnerable areas in citizens' constitutional liberties.
Bernie

DATABASE SHARING BRINGS NEW PRIVACY RISKS

Direct Line Commentary, Deputy Director J. Bradley Jansen, Center for Technology Policy, Free Congress Foundation
March 15, 2001

A new report has been issued detailing the systematic violation of our privacy by government agencies sharing databases. This exchange and merger of information as "systemic and routine" in the age of new technologies exposes citizens to new risks.

Privacilla.org has issued a special report on privacy and the federal agencies, "Government Exchange and Merger of Citizens' Personal Information is Systematic and Routine." The report chronicles the sharing of information between government agencies of their computer databases.

This report makes clear that government poses a greater threat to privacy than the private sector. There have been 47 times in the last 18 months where a federal agency has announced a computer matching program. Information collected for one purpose (with or without the consent of the citizens involved) is then shared with other agencies for other purposes.

The report explains how the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act is a misnomer. It does not protect our privacy much in the same way that the Bank Secrecy Act violates our expectations of financial privacy. In fact, most data exchange programs are exempted even from reporting the database swapping.

The report correctly explains that government cannot protect privacy but can only affect individuals' ability to protect their own privacy-for better or for worse. The Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act contributes to the federal government's threat to privacy.

By denying consumer choice, the government programs remove citizens' power over information about themselves. At least in the private sector, one can vote with one's feet and put out of business privacy-violating companies.

The news article today that IRS data is open to hackers further illustrates the point that data can be misused and abused--despite the best intentions of the bureaucrats at the time. The only way to safeguard our privacy is to stop the government from collecting data on us in the first place.