Remain vigilant on financial privacy -- By Dan Gillmor

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Remain vigilant on financial privacy
>
> By <mailto:dgillmor () mercurynews com>Dan Gillmor
> Mercury News Technology Columnist
>
> News and views, culled and edited from my online eJournal 
> (www.dangillmor.com):
>
> Privacy ascendant: So the California Legislature, after years of doing the 
> anti-consumer bidding of well-heeled benefactors in the financial 
> industry, finally did the right thing last week by passing a serious 
> financial-privacy bill. And today, Gov. Gray Davis, who had been a 
> behind-the-scene ally of the obstructionists, is expected to sign it.
>
> That's the good news. But never underestimate the raw power of the 
> financial lobby, nor its willingness to thwart the plain will of the 
> people. The industry isn't about to give up, which means we'll also have 
> to remain vigilant.
>
> It's not as if California's lawmakers deserve congratulations in any 
> event. They only agreed to pass SB 1, sponsored by a persistent state 
> senator, Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, after it was abundantly clear that 
> the voters would otherwise pass a ballot proposition vastly tougher than 
> the law we'll actually get.
>
> I was looking forward to the whipping that we, the people, were going to 
> give the financial behemoths over their insistence that our most personal 
> information is theirs to buy, sell, trade and give away. But the new law 
> will be an excellent step in the right direction -- and will lead the nation.
>
> Naturally, the financial industry has a backup plan. It's lobbying 
> Congress to pre-empt state laws entirely. One way is to renew and beef up 
> soon-to-expire provisions in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which in some 
> circumstances now prevents states from going further than federal rules.
>
> That's why, no matter where you live, you should contact your member of 
> the House of Representatives and both U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and 
> tell them to stand up to the Citibanks and State Farms and other financial 
> giants and let states protect their own citizens if they choose.
>
> California's law will become the national standard if it's allowed to 
> remain in force. Let's help ensure that it does.
>
> Moving out: Will America lose 3.3 million high-paid, value-added 
> technology jobs to overseas competitors in coming years? That's one 
> estimate that John Chen, chief executive of Sybase, has heard.
>
> But he's heard other estimates, too, he said at the Progress & Freedom 
> Foundation's conference in Aspen last week. No one is sure, though the 
> anecdotal evidence strongly suggests a worrisome trend.
>
> Chen correctly calls for a deep study. We need facts and context. We also 
> need a national debate about the next wave of American job shifts, the 
> same kind of debate we once had over the manufacturing move overseas. That 
> transition was painful but it left us stronger in the end.
>
> If this trend is as real as it sounds, big trouble is on the way. The 
> nation is not prepared, and in fact seems to be making all the wrong decisions.
>
> We are systematically wrecking our schools (except our universities, which 
> remain the world's best), destroying our government's fiscal base, 
> encouraging inequality of opportunity and generally encouraging our 
> international competitors to take advantage of our self-induced weakness. 
> America's emerging plutocracy cares mostly about profits, and doesn't care 
> where they come from.
>
> Ross Perot once talked of a ``giant sucking sound'' of employment heading 
> out of the country. But this isn't just a vacuuming from other countries. 
> We're doing a lot of this to ourselves.
>
> Dean's spam: The Howard Dean presidential campaign says it's sorry for 
> some recent e-mail spamming -- it should be mortified -- and blames the 
> unwanted e-mails on a contractor. Given the credibility among Net folk the 
> campaign has earned, this faux pas will probably be forgiven. Once.
>
> But given the ease with which spammers can disguise their identities, it's 
> easy to predict some increasingly ugly tactical moves in political 
> circles. Political operatives are going to hire spammers to send out 
> mail-blasts allegedly on behalf of their opponents' campaigns. The idea 
> will be to irritate voters, and it'll work.
>
> This sort of thing isn't a new idea. Sleazy operatives have in previous 
> election campaigns (at various levels) made bogus direct-marketing-like 
> pitches -- obnoxious ones -- supposedly on behalf of opponents.
>
> One of these days political campaigns will be spending all too much time 
> debunking their own alleged statements.
>
> Dan Gillmor's column appears each Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday. Visit 
> Dan's online column, eJournal at 
> <http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/>http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/columns/dangillmor/. 
> E-mail Dan at <mailto:dgillmor () mercurynews com>dgillmor () mercurynews com
> []

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