America Needs a Privacy Law

[The AchieVer]

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A view of the F.B.I. National Crime Information Center in Washington in 1967. In the 1960s, lawmakers began to question the government's gathering of Americans' data.CreditCreditBettmann, via Getty Images

To the Editor:

“The End of Privacy Began in the 1960s,” by Margaret O’Mara (Op-Ed, Dec. 6), points to several critical moments in the development of American privacy laws, but there is much in this history that needs clarifying if the next steps on privacy are smart ones.

Ms. O’Mara is correct that the proposal for a National Data Center and growing concern about the misuse of personal data by the government culminated in the Privacy Act of 1974. But a deal with the Ford White House stripped the final bill of private-sector coverage and a dedicated federal agency. The country has lived with the consequences.

Coverage in the private sector is uneven or exists not at all. The absence of a privacy agency is still a gaping hole in American law. The Europeans, building on the United States’ experience and facing similar challenges, managed to develop a privacy regime that is both more coherent and more effective.

Back then, Congress well understood the need to limit the collection of personal data. And Congress did not view privacy protection and the free flow of information as a trade-off. In the same year that Congress enacted the Privacy Act, it also strengthened the Freedom of Information Act.

 

 

There is still much that Congress can do to strengthen privacy protections for Americans. Enacting federal baseline legislation and establishing a data protection agency would be a good start.

 

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[straycat19]

Why?  People don't take advantage of the privacy available to them now.  Just this week I received two emails from people I didn't know.  Attached was their annual report to family and friends.  The data in the report included photos, names, ages, address, work place and occupation, and so on.  Enough information I could take over their email accounts (I went as far as being able to change their password, which I didn't) and with a little work their identities.  And I also had the information on all their family and friends.  One of them mentioned that instead of sending hard copies this year they were going digital.  After sending them back screenshots of what I was able to do/collect he decided to go hard copy next year and thanked me for the information.  Just a good lesson in making sure the email address you use is of the person you want to have the information, in this case it was the right name, wrong email.