Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Washington waking up to privacy issues, by William Safire
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 03 May 2000 09:40:21 -0700
http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/050100safi.html May 1, 2000 ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE Consenting Adults WASHINGTON -- Politicians of the left and right are finally beginning to pay attention to the groundswell of resentment about invasions of privacy. In the Senate, transportation subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby leads the way the law he sponsored to prevent states from selling to private investigators information and pictures required from motorists seeking a driver's license was upheld by the Supreme Court. He also led repeal of the ill-advised federal standard for licenses that would have used Social Security numbers to create an Orwellian national identification card. In the House, Texas Representative Ron Paul's bill to prohibit the use of the Social Security number as an all-purpose identifier is no longer in limbo. Ways and Means subcommittee chairman Clay Shaw reports that this action to combat widespread identity theft will be taken up this month. Chairman Dan Burton's Government Reform Committee will move on that privacy bill in June, as well as the bill to create a Privacy Protection Commission pressed by the G.O.P.'s Asa Hutchinson and Democrat Jim Moran. Here's evidence that we're getting traction President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore have detected the growing political appeal of personal privacy in a time of data rape. To a commencement audience yesterday, Clinton unveiled his plan to repel the invaders, challenging the Republican Congress to get on with legislation to stem the tide of snooping. [...]
Current thread:
- IP: Washington waking up to privacy issues, by William Safire Dave Farber (May 03)