FC: Al Gore talks up financial privacy -- but does he believe it?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Al Gore may honestly believe he's doing the right thing, but let's 
remember that this is the vice president who (reluctantly, a then-aide 
recently told me) championed the Clipper chip:
http://www.time.com/time/digital/daily/0,2822,14267,00.html

If Gore, or for that matter any other top administration official, truly 
wanted to protect financial privacy, they would speak out against 
regulations that require banks to spy on customers. But the FBI, Treasury 
Department, and DoJ last year scuttled a bill on the House floor that would 
have in part repealed those rules. They said it would derail the War on 
(Some) Drugs:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,20554,00.html

To be fair, it isn't truly a partisan issue -- privacy cuts across party 
lines -- and a number of law-and-order Republicans (hello, Bill McCollum!) 
agree with the administration here. --Declan]

*********

From: "Jansen, J. Bradley" <[deleted per request --DBM]@mail.house.gov>
Subject: Gore for privacy, says Safire (but from whom?)
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 11:04:51 -0400

[Al Gore tells William Safire that "I think that people ought to have a
right to expect [one's bank account and the history of what checks one
writes, and to whom] will remain private unless they affirmatively give up
that right for whatever reason. And I don't think the current law goes far
enough in protecting them."  Perhaps the Gore Administration would repeal
the Bank Secrecy Act that requires banks to spy on their customers?  (and
the rest of the banking regulations that require the collection of
data?)--JBJ]
Rep. Ron Paul's HR 518 would stop bank spying and HR 220 stops SSN abuses:
http://www.house.gov/paul/privacy/

http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/safire/061500safi.html

          June 15, 2000
          ESSAY / By WILLIAM SAFIRE
          Stop Cookie-Pushers

               Because Al Gore stands an even
               chance of becoming our next
          president, I thought it would be a good idea
          to nail down his position on a sleeper issue
          in this campaign: the abuse of computer
          technology to invade personal privacy... [snip]

          "I can tell you what the ideas are that I believe in," he said. "I
think that
          we should have absolute protection of financial privacy as well as
medical
          privacy. I do not think that your bank account and the history of
what
          checks you write, and to whom, ought to be marketable."

          Gore warmed to the subject: "I think that people ought to have a
right to
          expect that will remain private unless they affirmatively give up
that right
          for whatever reason. And I don't think the current law goes far
enough in
          protecting them. Does that answer your question?"

          Sure does.

          He also touched my button with "It should be illegal to trade in
Social
          Security numbers. That's the single key fact that is most useful
in
          compiling dossiers." [snip]

---------------------------------------------------------------

>                         American Banker Online
>                      http://www.americanbanker.com
>                            DAILY BRIEFING
>                         Thursday, June 15, 2000
>
> WASHINGTON
>
>           Medical Privacy Proposal Draws Bank Industry Fire
>      WASHINGTON - Treading carefully around the issue of medical
>     privacy, industry representatives on Wednesday criticized a
>     bill that would ban the sharing of consumers' health
>     information among financial services affiliates and third
>     parties.            In a hearing before the House Banking
>     Committee, representatives of the American Bankers
>     Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, the American
>     Council of Life Insurers, and other trade groups testified
>     that, though they support protecting medical information, they
>     believe the bill is unduly burdensome and would have
>     unintended consequences.
>
> http://www.americanbanker.com/cgi-bin/read_tagstory?20000615WASH963
>
>       Additional information from the House Banking Committee's
>        hearing on the Medical Financial Privacy Protection Act,
>               including hyperlinks to witness testimony
>
> http://www.americanbanker.com/cgi-bin/read_tagstory?20000615WASH970
>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Austria to abolish anonymous savings
                    Financial Times ; 14-Jun-2000 12:00:00 am
                    By WILLIAM HALL

                    Austria, whose bank secrecy laws have been heavily
criticised by fellow
                    OECD members, has bowed to international pressure to
abolish its
                    anonymous savings "passbook" accounts, which can be used
by criminals for
                    money laundering purposes.

                    The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an
inter-governmental body set up to
                    combat money laundering, is expected to lift its threat
to suspend Austria
                    from its FATF membership later this week. Austria is a
founder member of the
                    FATF and its repeated refusal to implement the
taskforce's anti-money
                    laundering recommendations has undermined the FATF's
credibility. [snip]

                    Austria has steadfastly resisted pressure from the
European Union and the
                    FATF to abolish its anonymous accounts, in spite of
evidence that they were
                    being bought and sold on the internet.

                    Matters came to a head in February when the FATF
declared it would
                    suspend Austria from its FATF membership if it did not
take action to
                    eliminate the anonymous passbook accounts. [snip]

                    The Austrian government has introduced legislation which
will end the right to
                    open secret bank accounts from November and phase out
existing
                    anonymous accounts by June 2002.

---------------------------------------------------------------
[Perhaps a "Know Your Customer" program for IMF and other government
officials makes sense--JBJ]
US 'to help Indonesia trace funds'
                    Financial Times ; 14-Jun-2000 12:00:00 am
                    By JOSHUA CHAFFIN and TOM MCCAWLEY

                    The Indonesian government yesterday said the US had
offered to help it track
                    down substantial missing funds alleged to have been
hidden by Suharto, the
                    country's former leader. [snip]

                    Mr Suharto is now under house arrest in an official
inquiry into corruption.

                    Some Indonesian investigators believe the Suharto family
has siphoned
                    billions of dollars into offshore bank accounts.

                    Yet tracking down any such wealth would be technically
and legally complex.
                    The Indonesian government has already approached Kroll
Associates, the firm
                    that helped recover some of the Marcos wealth for the
Philippines. [snip]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/forum/skyline.htm :

Census Worker Charged in Break-In

 Associated Press Online - June 14, 2000 16:29

 GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) - A census worker has been charged with breaking and
entering after
 a woman complained that the man entered her home without permission while
her daughter was
 there alone.

 Hubert Lambert, 61, of Lincolnton, was charged Tuesday.

 Jane Crump said her 14-year-old daughter was at home when a man knocked
persistently on
 the front door.

 The girl, reluctant to open the door for a stranger, locked herself in a
bedroom and phoned her
 mother, who called police from work.
[...]
---------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_dougherty/20000614_xnjdo_medical_id.sht
ml:

Medical ID number squashed again
Bill to prohibit funding of 'unique health identifiers' passed

                 By Jon E. Dougherty
                 (c) 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

                 An amendment to the FY 2001 Health and Human
                 Services appropriations bill to prohibit funding for the
                 assignment of unique patient health identifiers was passed
                 by the House of Representatives last night, extending a
                 moratorium on funding in place since 1998.

                 Two years ago, Rep. Ron Paul,
                 R-Texas, introduced a similar
                 amendment prohibiting the federal
                 government from funding the
                 health identifier portion of the
                 Health Insurance Portability and
                 Accountability Act passed by
                 Congress in 1996. It was his
                 measure that was again accepted
                 by the House Tuesday, Paul
                 spokesman Tom Lizardo told WorldNetDaily.

[...]

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