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IP: Election 2000, Privacy, and the Internet: PRIVACY Forum Digest V09 #21
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 16:49:25 -0400
Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 09:03 PDT From: lauren () vortex com (Lauren Weinstein; PRIVACY Forum Moderator) Subject: Election 2000, Privacy, and the Internet Greetings. As we enter the home stretch of the current U.S. election cycle, a variety of crucial issues loom large, many of which could be greatly affected by the outcome of the Presidential and Congressional elections. Unlike the dreadfully sorry excuse for a representative process demonstrated by the recently completed ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) "election" procedure, many millions of persons will be voting in the U.S. national elections on Nov. 7. (For more thoughts on the ICANN process, please see the "PFIR Statement on Internet Policies, Regulations, and Control" at: http://www.pfir.org/statements/policies.) In many cases, the serious issues underlying the upcoming Congressional and Presidential voting have been obscured or distorted by rhetoric from all sides, much of it purposeful and targeted, sometimes in precise, privacy-invasive manners. There are certainly many issues beyond the Internet and privacy to be considered. The dramatic events in the Middle East of the last few days seem to assure that international affairs will take a much greater role on the election stage than is typical for United States elections. More substantive attention to the international environment by national political candidates is long overdue, though I'll admit to not being inspired by most of the current candidate crop. It is worrisome to say the least when, as in some current cases, expectations are set so low that a Middle School level recitation of international names, pronounced without overt stumbling, is categorized by some commentators as acting in a "Presidential" manner. Pretty scary stuff... This year, a variety of privacy-related issues have played significant roles in the campaigns for both Congress and the Presidency, beyond the fact that the next President is likely to appoint Supreme Court Justices who could dramatically affect national privacy policies for many years to come. Unfortunately, these matters are all such a mixed bag that it is basically impossible to make a rational choice between the two major candidates using these issues as a focus. (I refer at this time only to the "two major candidates" with due apologies to those persons who support candidates in other parties. In all honesty, as a practical matter, I do not consider the other candidates' current minimal impact on the election process to be sufficient grounds to equate them with either the Democratic or Republican candidates in terms of potential election outcomes. Perhaps this will change in the future.) The Internet and privacy issues have become hot-button political topics in a variety of quarters. A number of proposals are pending in Congress that would either make matters better, or worse, depending upon your point of view. Bills that address issues of e-mail spam (please see http://www.pfir.org/statements/spam for more on this), Social Security Numbers, banking privacy and disclosures, spyware -- software that "leaks" data back to third parties, and more, are in various legislative stages. They are all important, but rarely are discussed within the political arena. Privacy issues make for strange bedfellows indeed, with all manner of rather bizarre cross-party coalitions responsible for or supporting many of these privacy-related proposals. On the other hand, the Internet has become a most convenient political scapegoat for any number of societies' ills, a conduit for privacy-invasive behavior by political parties, and a dandy target for political distortions in the tradition of old-style politics supreme. Perhaps the most famous recent political distortion in this regard is the oft-quoted line about Al Gore claiming that he invented the Internet. He of course never made that statement. He did say that he was proud of the initiative he had taken in the creation of the Internet, a statement that many Internet old-timers have validated. The publicly-accessible Internet as we know it today was largely a political creation, the child of the Defense Department ARPANET and directly related to Congressional initiatives in which Al Gore had a major role. He never claimed the inventing of Internet technology. Be that as it may, some who would prefer to draw attention away from actual records find it convenient to distort his statements. Politics as usual -- and both parties play the game. Nor does either party seem to have much to be proud of when it comes to the the use of personal data in attempts manipulate voters, especially this year. Last December, I discussed the operations of Aristotle Publishing (in the PRIVACY Forum issue at: http://www.vortex.com/privacy/priv.08.22). Firms like Aristotle match up voter registration records with personal data provided at Web sites, and in some cases with a variety of other personal but public record data (where you live, how much your house is worth, what sort of neighborhood you live in, what kind of car you drive, etc.) to create personalized pitches on behalf of their political clients. Outside of the fact that many people find this sort of dossier creation extremely offensive and intrusive, it also results in the real positions of the parties becoming increasingly foggy, as they attempt to present themselves as precisely what they think an individual voter would want to see, either through phone calls, physical mail, or increasingly via e-mail. It's easy for any underlying truths to be effectively buried by such technologies, which both parties are apparently relying upon to ever-increasing degrees. As I mentioned, even as the parties use these technologies to their advantage, and candidates promote the Internet as an educational wonder, they also treat the Internet as a convenient scapegoat to flog for all manner of perceived societal problems which have existed since long before the Internet's appearance. During a brief exchange concerning gun control in the second Presidential Debate, candidate George W. Bush appeared to directly equate use of the Internet with causing children to commit gun crimes. A convenient argument, but seemingly much more pandering than addressing reality. Unfortunately, both political parties seem to be charter members of the Internet blame game. Congress on a bipartisan basis keeps pushing for, and both Presidential candidates have apparently endorsed, various forms of privacy-invasive Internet rating, content control, and filtering programs, even in the face of most software filters' abysmally repressive and inaccurate performance (http://www.pfir.org/statements/ratings). It appears to be "good politics" to blame the Internet for problems with our youths, just as comic books, rock music, and long (male) hair were routinely condemned years ago. Real evidence is not required -- just repeat the party lines often enough and perhaps the people will believe them to be true. As bad as all this looks, it could be worse. By the time of the next Presidential election four years from now, we're likely to see the issue of Internet Voting in local, state, and national elections take center stage. As discussed in http://www.pfir.org/statements/voting, this concept opens up a nightmarish Pandora's Box of privacy, security, reliability, accuracy, and related problems, most of which are not subject to obvious or simple solutions. Yet, the pressure to increase voting turnout by letting people vote at home from their PCs will be very strong indeed, and if history is any guide, the massive risks inherent in such online voting schemes will be largely ignored amidst rosy forecasts by such systems' promoters and their political allies. If this actually transpires, we're likely to all be the losers. Gee, we haven't even gotten past this election yet, and already Lauren is offering worries for next time -- he's a regular ray of sunshine! Well, these issues will all be dealt with, one way or another, in due course. No need to panic *quite* yet. For now, take a deep breath, consider your options carefully, and for those of you eligible to do so, please be sure to vote. For all the rhetoric and spin, political mayhem and manipulation, your vote still counts, and voting is still exceptionally important to our future. After all, as the famous political adviser "Criswell" suggested in the film "Plan 9 From Outer Space" -- you'll be living in the future for the rest of your life! Take care. Be seeing you. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () privacyforum org Co-Founder, PFIR: People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy ------------------------------ End of PRIVACY Forum Digest 09.21 ************************
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- IP: Election 2000, Privacy, and the Internet: PRIVACY Forum Digest V09 #21 Dave Farber (Oct 15)