No Privacy Among the Chips
More than half a century ago Justice Louis D. Brandeis was worried about the invasion of privacy of American citizens. He said, “The makers of our Constitution . . . conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone--the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.” Brandeis looked on government as the chief source of the danger. He warned that “every unjustifiable intrusion by the government upon the privacy of the individual, whatever the means employed, must be deemed a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
He voiced that concern in a relatively uncomplicated period of American society in the late 1920s. Since then the steady advance of technology, especially the development of the ubiquitous computer, poses potential invasions of privacy undreamed of in Brandeis’ time. The threat comes not only from government but also from private organizations, with their ability to collect and distribute vast quantities of information.
Recognizing the value of privacy, Congress passed the Federal Privacy Act in 1974, whichestablished significant standards for federal agencies to observe. The law requires the federal government to reveal the location of all federal data systems containing identifiable personal information. The law gives the individual the right of access to his own file and the right to make corrections. It requires the government to use the information only for the purpose for which it was collected, and it specifies that the information must be relevant to that purpose.
The Privacy Act was a notable achievement, but many critics assert that it has been overtaken by the rush of new technology and must be expanded. For example, the theft of computerized data is not covered, and millions of records generated by business activities are not fully protected and are vulnerable to unauthorized access--including medical, banking and credit information.
Bipartisan support is growing for Congress to bring federal privacy laws up to date to cope with the swift technological changes that have taken place in the past decade. Society can never return to a simpler, less complex past, but we cannot permit the individual to be eaten up by microchips.
