Blog of Rights
Chris
Calabrese
Christopher Calabrese is the legislative counsel for privacy-related issues in the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington Legislative Office (WLO). Prior to joining the WLO, Calabrese served as project counsel to the ACLU Technology & Liberty Project (TLP).  As legislative counsel, Calabrese leads the office's advocacy efforts related to privacy and the responsible use of technology, developing proactive strategies on pending federal legislation and executive branch actions concerning data collection, surveillance, and identification systems.
05/18/2009

Note to Congress: 23 States Rejected Real ID

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:54pm

Saturday, May 16, 2009, should go down in legislative history as the tipping point for the Real ID Act of 2005. This failed law tried to turn state drivers licenses into a national ID card and impose new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants and state governments. But the states pushed back

On Saturday — almost four years to that May 11 day that then-President George W. Bush signed the Real ID Act of 2005, Minnesota became the 23rd state to reject it. In the entire state of Minnesota, only one lawmaker voted in support of Real ID.

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05/14/2009

The Big Question, Answered

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:05pm

On Tuesday, Congress Blog's "Big Question" was: "Regarding healthcare reform, how can President Obama succeed where Bill Clinton failed?" Chris Calabrese, attorney for the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project, gave this answer:

In pushing for the overhaul of the health care system President Obama has one big step up on President Clinton: he has already succeeded in putting patient privacy first. The recent stimulus legislation contains substantive new privacy protections including the first ban on the sale of medical records, allowing patient access to audit trails, limits on marketing that uses personal health information and some right to limit the sharing of medical information. By contrast it took eight years under Clinton to adopt the weak HIPAA protections (which were subsequently watered down further under President Bush).

Public buy-in to health care reform is crucial. One of Americans’ biggest fears is that the creation of electronic medical records means more access to their medical records — by insurers, by employers and even by criminals. Proper implementation of these new statutory protections can go a long way toward alleviating those fears and putting the patient in control of his or her own care.

Equally important, many of the key features being discussed as part of any reform package — from mining patient records to find the most effective treatment options to monitoring patient prescription drug interactions — rely on effective information control. At its heart, that’s what privacy protections are — the effective control of the flow of information.

The Health Information Technology Policy Committee at HHS has already begun deliberation on what the new privacy regulations (based on the stimulus legislation) should look like. If the members craft regulations that empower consumers and allow them to control their own medical information, President Obama will likely have an IT blueprint for health care reform. If the committee cannot create a workable regime for controlling the flow of medical information, then President Obama will likely face a difficult challenge in the broader health care debate.

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03/26/2009

DHS Inspector General: Real ID, What a Waste.

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:51pm

The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security issued a report earlier this week entitled "DHS Unable to Figure Out What It's Doing on Real ID; Unable to Provide Guidance to States." (PDF)

Alright that's not the exact title, but honestly, we think that's what they would have said if they weren't constrained to speak in federal bureaucratese. You can tell because what they did say was pretty scathing. Here are a few tidbits (with a little editorial clarification from us):

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02/19/2009

For Sale: Your Medical Records?

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:43pm

In a quiet data warehouse, somewhere on the Internet:

"Step right up for our big clearance sale! Today only, we have billions of medical records. Pharmaceutical companies, learn what doctors are prescribing. It's the best way to convince them to switch from your competitor's brand! We also have deals on using patient information from pharmacies to pitch advertisements directly to the consumer. We can even help you outsource to companies not covered by health privacy laws!"

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