CategoriesJoin Us At:
|
Time for Congress to Wake UpIs Congress winking and nodding at identity thieves? It appears that way, since they have not updated the Privacy Act since 1974. A lot has changed since 1974 and the popularity of e-government has exploded. Many millions of people now pay their taxes and file forms electronically, a number which grows by the day. The ACLU believes the government has no business collecting our personal information if it cannot ensure us it will be protected from identify thieves and other prying eyes. Senators Lieberman and Collins held a hearing to address these concerns today. Let’s hope the rest of Congress wakes up and realizes that our personal information requires far greater security than it did in 1974, the year the pocket calculator was invented. They can begin by updating the Privacy Act of 1974 to require that data obtained by government agencies from commercial data brokers like Accurint, Axciom, and ChoicePoint be subject to the act.
|
|
© ACLU, 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10004 |
One important law in that regard is the prohibition on politically partisan activity. Given our nonprofit status, we may not endorse or oppose candidates for elective office. That means we cannot host comments on our site that show a preference for one candidate or party. Although we in no way wish to discourage you from that activity elsewhere, we ask that you not engage in that activity on our website (or include links to other websites that do so). Additionally, given that we are subject to very specific rules concerning the collection of personally identifying information through our website (names, email addresses, home address, financial information, etc.), we ask that you not use the comments portion of this blog to solicit this information from users of our website. We also ask that you not use the comments portion for advertising or requests for legal assistance, and do not add to your comment links to other websites, as we cannot be responsible for the content on other websites.
We are not able to respond to unsolicited inquiries, complaints or requests for assistance sent to this blog. Please direct your complaint or request for assistance to the ACLU affiliate in your state. Requests for legal assistance left in the blog comments will not receive a response or be published.
Finally, the ACLU cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information in the comment section and expressly disclaims any liability for any information in this section.