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THE PRIVACY RIGHTS IN QUESTION
ARE NEW LAWS THE ANSWER?
THE TECHNOLOGICAL ARENAS
THE PRIVACY RIGHTS IN QUESTION
The four major technological arenas we are examining are:
- Telecommunication Systems
- Computerized Bulletin Board Systems
- Private Data Bases
- Governmental Data Bases
- The major privacy rights and related rights which need to be examined
and discussed are:
- Rights of individuals to privacy in their telecommunications.
- Rights of individuals to privacy concerning personalized
information related to them held in computerized data bases.
- Rights of individuals and corporations to control
proprietary information owned by them and held in computerized data
bases.
- Rights of individuals who operate data bases to be
free from unreasonable search and seizure.
- Rights of data base operators to protect their privacy
from unauthorized intrusion.
- Rights of BBS operators to limited protection from
liability for illegal or defamatory information posted on their BBS
without their knowledge or consent.
- Rights of governmental agencies to pursue legitimate
law enforcement investigations and collect authorized information for
legitimate governmental functions.
Both the President's Privacy Committee and a similar study commission
established by Congress issued excellent reports calling for Congressional
and Executive action and industry cooperation to forestall the foreseeable
problems relating to privacy engendered by the rapid increase in the use
of computerized data systems and electronic data transfer technology. Unfortunately,
with the exception of certain provisions of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting
Act, little has been done to protect privacy rights and establish responsibility
and liability for abuses and errors resulting form the proliferation of
electronic information systems.
ARE NEW LAWS THE ANSWER?
New laws are already being passed in state legislatures and in Washington,
D.C. It makes sense to make sure the new laws reflect a concern for privacy
rights and other Constitutional issues as well as an accurate picture of
how the new technologies actually function, both physically and in use.
Senator Charles Mathias gives us the broad perspective regarding telecommunications,
privacy and the law:
"The uses of these new networks - and
that means all of us - expect legal protection against unwarranted
interceptions of this communications stream, whether by overzealous
law-enforcement officers or private snoops. But the law as it now stands
may not provide protection. Under the 1968 wiretap law, the privacy
of our communications may turn on technical questions - whether or
not the communication is carried by wire, whether it is analog or digital
in form. These questions are simply irrelevant to the legitimate expectations
of those who transmit and receive information in today's communications
networks.
"We missed one opportunity to plug this
loophole in 1984. Last October [1984], Congress passed the first federal
computer-crime law. It outlaws, under certain circumstances, unauthorized
intrusions into computer databases, but it ignores the question of
interception of communications between those computers. To use a low
technology analogy, it's now a crime to steal a letter from my mail
box, but not to grab it from the letter carrier before it's delivered.
I hope that this anomaly can be corrected...."
Having set this stage, let's bring on the players and their stories and
review the elements of drama, comedy, tragedy and farce. Through the examples
and incidents described here, we can come to appreciate the problem confronting
us in attempting to formulate solutions. Since one stumbling block to an
intelligent discussion of these matters is that some people are completely
mystified by computer technology, I will err on the side of fuller example
and explanation than normally warranted in such a discussion. Previous | TOC | Next |
