From: Steve McBride <spm2101@columbia.edu>
  To  : <cpc@emoglen.law.columbia.edu>
  Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:08:36 -0500

Re: private versus government data collection

I agree with you Alex.  The line between corporations and government gets a 
bit hazy--it looks like a case of one hand washing the other.  Lack of any 
effective enforcement measures against misuse of information is what scares 
me the most.  That leads back to the government as the problem, but it also 
points out that there are just not enough people that care about this 
behavior to oppose the lobbying power of the data mining companies and law 
enforcement.  It looks like until the misuse of this data causes a huge 
scandal, the public won't care enough to force change.

Steve

--On Sunday, February 20, 2005 11:20 AM -0500 ar2308@columbia.edu wrote:

>
> I would say this an oversimplification of things, and more importantly
> the issue is not only the use that the government can make of the all of
> this information but also the misuse and defective protection of the
> private data by private individuals. added to that is the use that others
> can make of the data that readily available for stealing and for which
> there is not penalty under American privacy laws, which only bind the
> government -excerpt maybe for the fair credit reporting act.
>
> So its not really either or, and its not what is worse, its the combined
> effect of it all.
>
> Alex
>
> --On Sunday, February 20, 2005 9:15 AM -0500 Camden Hutchison
> <crh2014@columbia.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> The impression I am getting from reading Robert O?Harrow, Jr.?s book
>> is that new data collection technologies raise two distinct social
>> issues.  One is that private businesses now have easy access to
>> detailed personal information about us.  The other is that the
>> federal government increasingly also has access to detailed
>> personal information about us.
>>
>> I am curious as to which of these two issues other students feel is
>> the core problem we should be addressing in the class.  My own
>> feeling is that government use of our personal information (at
>> least when it is being used for national security purposes) is far
>> more worrisome than private use of that information.  Like Eben
>> said in class, the worst that marketers can do is try to convince
>> us to go to Disneyworld.  The government can send men with guns to
>> our homes.
>>
>> -Camden
>>
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>
>
>
>
>
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