White House calls for more privacy laws
Source: AP-Excite
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and JULIE PACE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is asking Congress to pass new privacy laws that would add more safeguards for Americans' data and provide more protections for emails sought in the course of a law enforcement investigation.
The recommendations are among six offered by President Barack Obama's counselor John Podesta in a report released Thursday. While large sets of data make Americans' lives easier and can help save lives, the report noted, they also could be used to discriminate against Americans in areas such as housing and employment.
"Big data" is everywhere. It allows mapping apps to ping cellphones anonymously and determine, in real time, what roads are the most congested. It enables intelligence agencies to amass large amounts of emails and phone records to help root out terrorists. And it could be used to target economically vulnerable people.
At Obama's request, Podesta and the president's top economic and science advisers conducted a 90-day review of how the government and private sector use large sets of data. While the recommendations are not binding, they do track with many of the president's previous calls for addressing privacy issues.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140501/white_house-big_data-ff0a792c98.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
How about he just revoke the Patriot Act like he said he would?
