Report: Feds need better privacy protection for data collected about us

[babylonsister]

Report: Feds need better privacy protection for data


By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY


WASHINGTON — The government does not have adequate privacy protections for the personal information it collects, shares and stores as part of the effort to fight terrorism, according to a new report by a U.S. watchdog agency.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that new laws are needed to safeguard people's personal information. Decades-old laws no longer cover the "increasingly sophisticated ways" that the government collects information, such as through biometric scans of fingerprints, the report said.

"In today's highly interconnected environment, information can be gathered from many different sources, analyzed and redistributed in very dynamic, unstructured ways," the GAO's Linda Koontz says in testimony prepared for a hearing today by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Much of the way personal information is handled today, including being sifted through data-mining systems that search for patterns, is not covered by the Privacy Act of 1974, she says.

As states begin collecting information in coming years to produce new secure drivers' licenses, government databases will get even larger. "The government has no business collecting our personal information if it cannot ensure the American public it will be protected from identity thieves and other prying eyes," says Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union.

more...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-06-17-privacy_N.htm

[The2ndWheel]

1. That sentence is a few words too long

"The government has no business collecting our personal information."

Fixed.

[babylonsister]

2. But the reality is, it's going to happen whether we like it or not. nt

[The2ndWheel]

4. Yeah. Hell of a situation

There is a price to pay for allowing/wanting a world of, by, and for the institution. More and more people have less and less say in how their lives are lived.

[havocmom]

3. Google this: outsourcing tax returns

Information about your finances, loans, medical expenses, all the stuff that you may have to include on your tax return can easily end up going to a private corporation (privatization) and then sent to foreign countries (outsourcing) to be processed. Feel safe, America?

Do yo think corporations who want to squeeze every cent out of every transaction give a shit about putting the best data security in place? Do you think ALL their employees will care and honor your privacy as they work for subsistence wages and see how YOU are doing?

Private companies with your sensitive data may leave you hanging out in the open too. More and more mortgage companies outsource loan processing. Some medical transcription of patient records are outsourced.

Your data is out there. bouncing around the globe. Your military's families' data could be out there bouncing around too. We are not keeping their families as secure as we should while our military personnel are in service to us.

We are not safe.