Privacy–Databases
Two Pieces of Library and Database Related Legislation Introduced in U.S. Congress

1) Feingold Introduces Library, Bookseller, and Personal Records Privacy Act
From the announcement, “…legislation is aimed at protecting the privacy of law-abiding Americans by limiting the ability of the FBI to obtain library, bookstore, medical, and financial records and other sensitive personal information under the USA PATRIOT Act. Feingold’s legislation would place reasonable limits on the FBI’s access to this information by requiring the FBI to show how the information it is seeking relates to a suspected terrorist or spy before the information can be obtained.”
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2) Oregon Senator Introduces Citizens� Protection in Federal Databases Act of 2003 Bill
From the news release, “Currently, there are no comprehensive privacy laws regulating the federal government�s access to, or use of, public and private databases. The Wyden proposal would require the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Treasury, the Director of Central Intelligence, and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations to provide to Congress a detailed report explaining the use of databases for law enforcement or intelligence purposes.”
See Also: Full-Text of the Legislation (via EPIC)
See Also: From the EPIC website, FBI documents (pdf) obtained by EPIC show that Bureau use of private databases increased by 9600 percent over a ten-year period. The FBI document begins with the words, “In the beginning there was Lexis-Nexis……”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2003 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.