The Politics Of Privacy Protection
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In May, the annual convention of the National Association of Attorneys General in Seattle focused entirely on the privacy issue, and a number of states already have privacy regulation or court cases against offenders in the works. “The attorneys general are the people who took on the tobacco companies, and they have the same attitude toward protecting privacy,” says privacy expert Robert Ellis Smith, the keynote speaker at the conference and the man who literally wrote the definition of privacy for World Book Encyclopedia. Washington state attorney general Christine Gregoire in January proposed legislation giving consumers the right to opt out of the use of their personal information, requiring their “explicit and written consent before sensitive, financial information like account numbers and access codes” can be shared or sold; giving victims of identity theft–when someone steals your personal data and pretends to be you–greater protections; and establishing consumer protection penalties that allowed victims of privacy slips to “pursue and recover actual damages.” The effort failed. “Washington state expected smooth sailing for the privacy package,” says Smith. “But it was shot down by strong lobbying behind closed doors.” More : informationweek.com |