FC: Bob Barr readies bill to disclose Feds' privacy practices

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I've placed a copy of the Barr privacy bill here:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/barr.privacy.bill.042302.pdf

A few notes:
1. This bill does NOT apply to private firms or state or local government 
entities -- it's federal agencies only.
2. It's unclear how much it would apply to law enforcement agencies (and 
forget about intelligence agencies, yeahright).
3. It would apply to the IRS.
4. It would NOT limit nasty-intrusive-anti-privacy practices. It would 
merely require a "privacy impact analysis" to be published.

Here's an excerpt from an announcement about tomorrow's shindig:
> WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S. Rep. Bob Barr (GA-7), a senior Member of the House 
> Judiciary Committee, will hold a news conference tomorrow, April 24th at 
> 1:00 PM at the House Triangle, to announce legislation he is introducing 
> to help protect Americans from unjustified or unintended invasions of 
> privacy by the federal government.   Barr will be joined at the news 
> conference by Congressman Jerrold Nadler, and other Members, as well as a 
> broad coalition of national grassroots organizations supporting Barr's 
> legislation, including, the National Rifle Association, the American Civil 
> Liberties Union, Eagle Forum, and others.

Here's an excerpt from the most relevant section of the bill:
> —Whenever an agency is re-
> quired by section 553 of this title, or any other law, 10
> to publish a general notice of proposed rulemaking 11
> for any proposed rule, or publishes a notice of pro- 12
> posed rulemaking for an interpretative rule involving 13
> the internal revenue laws of the United States, the 14
> agency shall prepare and make available for public 15
> comment an initial privacy impact analysis. Such 16
> analysis shall describe the impact of the proposed 17
> rule on the privacy of individuals. 18

Following is an excerpt from a summary prepared by Barr's staff.

-Declan

Federal Agency Privacy Protection of Privacy Act

A good-government bill that will improve the regulatory process and protect
Americans from unjustified or unintended invasions of privacy, by:

·       Ensuring federal agencies  consider the impact of proposed 
regulations on individual privacy

·       Requiring agencies to include an initial privacy impact analysis with
proposed  regulations that are circulated for public notice and comment

·       Requiring agencies, after the notice and comment period, to include a
final privacy impact analysis that describes the steps that were taken to
minimize the significant privacy impact of proposed regulations and that
justifies the alternative with respect to privacy that was chosen by the agency

·       Permitting judicial review of the adequacy of an agency's final 
privacy
impact, similar to that provided by the Regulatory Flexibility Act for small
businesses

·       Requiring agencies to periodically review rules that have either a
significant privacy impact on individuals or a privacy impact on a
significant number or individuals

The bill will not unduly burden agencies in the development and issuance of
proposed rules, because:

·       It would require a privacy impact analysis only when an agency is 
already required to publish a general notice of proposed rulemaking,

·       An agency would not be required to do anything that it presumably 
had not already done, i.e. consider the consequences of the proposed 
rule.  It would only have to publicly articulate how its proposed rule 
would effect privacy interests

· The "Federal Agency Protection of Privacy Act" will help agencies in the
rulemaking process by providing a better framework for developing rules that
consider important privacy concerns

In a time when the theft and misuse of personal information is rampant and
increasing, the bill will better protect the American public from such
victimization




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