[Politech logo]

Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.

Bush should pick chief privacy officer straightaway, groups say



[If these worthy groups and academics were interested only in encouraging 
the Feds to think more seriously about how agencies should approach 
privacy, there would be nothing to criticize and everything to applaud. But 
there is the potential for Bush to pick someone who is more interested in 
upping regulations of the private sector, something that is not as clearly 
a good thing. --Declan]

***********

From: ari@cdt.org
Subject: Public Interest Groups and Academics Call on Bush Administration 
to Fill Privacy Position
Message-Id: <20010416131813.2BEDD4A5B7@mail1.panix.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 09:18:13 -0400 (EDT)

Public Interest Groups and Academics Call on Bush Administration to Fill
Privacy Position

In a letter sent today, a diverse group of advocacy organizations and
academics called on the Director of the Office and Management and budget to
hire a new Chief Privacy Counselor.

The signers expressed concern that privacy would lose the momentum that it
had gained at the end of last year.  "We are concerned that without these
central staff resources dedicated solely to privacy, we will return to a
time when privacy was an afterthought in government and commercial data
processing; education of the different agencies took years rather than
months; and OMB staff knew little about the larger privacy issues effecting
the country," the letter read.

The signers want the new counselor to oversee the implementation of existing
privacy law as it applies to the federal government and advise the President
on privacy policy in the public and private sectors.

"Despite all that we have heard about the importance of privacy recently in
both the public and private sectors from Congress and in the polls," said
Center for Democracy and Technology Senior Policy Analyst Ari Schwartz, "we
are still waiting for the Administration to appoint leadership on the
issue."

The organizational signers included The Center for Democracy and Technology,
Consumer Action, the Free Congress Foundation, OMB Watch, Private Citizen,
and Privacy Foundation along with seven important academic experts Mary J.
Culnan, Bentley College; Rod Dixon, Rutgers University Law School; Jerry
Kang, UCLA School of Law; Deirdre K. Mulligan, Boalt Law School, University
of California, Berkeley ; Joel R. Reidenberg, Fordham University School of
Law; Paul Schwartz, Brooklyn Law School; and David E. Sorkin, The John
Marshall Law School, Chicago.

The full letter is available online at:
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/010412omb.shtml

Contact: Ari Schwartz
Center for Democracy and Technology
202-637-9800
ari@cdt.org

----------------------------------
CDT Update Subscription Information

E-mail questions, comments, or requests to subscribe or unsubscribe
to ari@cdt.org or call (202) 637-9800.

Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found
at http://www.cdt.org/

-----------------------------------
Ari Schwartz
Policy Analyst
Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20006
202 637 9800
fax 202 637 0968
ari@cdt.org
http://www.cdt.org
-----------------------------------




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------




Enter your email address to join Politech, Declan McCullagh's moderated technology and politics announcement list:

Return to politechbot.com