eWeek's Rapoza: "Federal Privacy Committee Stacked with Anti-Privacy Advocates"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1784963,00.asp

Privacy Committee Stacked with Anti-Privacy Advocates
By Jim Rapoza
April 18, 2005

Opinion: The feds' Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee isn't
likely to safeguard data privacy or integrity.
 
So here I am, head of a large corporation, and it's time for me to pick
a few top people to help run the company. But who should I pick for key
positions such as CFO and CIO?

My first pick is Marty, a person who can't track or control his
spending, who is completely clueless and unorganized about his finances.
The next time he saves a dollar will be the first time he saves a
dollar. I'm going to make him chief financial officer.

And then there's Gail, who avoids using e-mail, a PC or anything
technology-related and who in a company meeting famously stated that all
technology is bad and that the company should return to pencil, paper
and Day-Timers. She is, of course, the perfect candidate for chief
information officer.

OK, I know you think I may be nuts with these decisions, but I'm just
following the example of one of the biggest organizations around‹namely,
the U.S. government. Lately it seems as if the main qualification to get
a top position in a government agency is to be completely opposed to the
stated goal of that agency.

 From a technology and, especially, an Internet business perspective,
some of the most disconcerting agency appointments have been in the
Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory
Committee, a group that advises the department's chief privacy officer
and has the potential to shape government policies for individuals,
corporations and technology as a whole.

The first interesting decision was when the committee membership was
announced in February and it included D. Reed Freeman, chief privacy
officer at Claria, which was formerly known as Gator. Of course, this
caused a great deal of consternation in the privacy community because
Claria/Gator is one of the biggest players in spyware‹I mean adware,
PUPs, um, "super-keen-ware that you may have unknowingly installed."
Many were surprised that a group meant to advise on privacy would
include someone from an industry that is all about breaking down
individual privacy on the Web.

Then this month, the chairman of this committee was named, and it turned
out to be a Heritage Foundation fellow named Paul Rosenzweig, who, in
privacy and government circles, is well-known for his advocacy of the
proposed Total Information Awareness program, which was shot down in
Congress because of its many potential privacy abuses.

Of course, the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee is an
advisory group, and advisory committees shouldn't exclude people with
extreme viewpoints. But when I look at the list of committee members (at
www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/ editorial/editorial_0598.xml), I don't
see the extreme pro-privacy counterparts to some of these committee members.

There is a good number of clear moderates from the corporate and
government sectors, even some who are clearly privacy advocates. But
there are no hard-core consumer privacy advocates‹say, on the Richard
Smith level‹to balance the committee.

And when the chairman is a person who has been described as seeing
privacy as something to be worked around, rather than someone more from
the center, it is easy to understand why some have said that the
committee's goal is not to prevent invasions of privacy but to prevent
privacy from invading government policies.

I'm not ready to get my tinfoil hat out just yet, but I am concerned
about the potential effects on technology and the Internet.

When we as IT administrators are spending serious time and money to rid
our companies of adware and other unwanted programs that track users and
slow our systems, how much influence do we want the companies that make
these programs to have over government privacy policy?

When we go to extreme lengths to protect our customer and business data
from prying eyes, shouldn't we worry about the power of people who
advocate for programs designed to capture all Internet traffic,
transactions and data into central government databases?

I may be overreacting to the possible influence of an advisory
committee. But having spent way too much time in recent years either
dealing with the fallout of bad government policies or lobbying
regularly against new policies that will adversely affect the way I use
and manage technology, I don't take anything for granted.

eWEEK Labs Director Jim Rapoza can be reached at jim_rapoza () ziffdavis com.

Click here for an archive of Jim Rapoza's columns.
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