| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Religion Is A Disease...Clayton Is The Placebo" |
| Date: |
28 Jan 2005 06:28:19 AM |
| Object: |
OT: Axiom |
EPIC Alert 12.02 http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_12.02.html
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[4] Acxiom Lobbied for Broad Exemptions to Privacy Law After 9/11
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EPIC has obtained documents showing that commercial data broker Acxiom
lobbied to water down key federal privacy laws immediately after the
September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Acxiom sought broader access to
"credit headers" and drivers information to develop a system for
"identity and information verification that can be used by
organizations such as airlines, airports, cruise ships, and large
buildings and other applications to better determine whether a person
is actually who they say they are."
The documents consist mainly of notes prepared by Department of
Justice staff detailing conversations and communications between then
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Acxiom president Charles Morgan and
company attorney Jerry Jones. According to the documents, Morgan and
Jones approached the Department of Justice on several occasions to
discuss "amendments to the Gramm Leach Bliley (GLB) and the Drivers
Privacy Protection Act (DPPA)" to accommodate a developing system for
"identity and information verification." The documents also reference
107 H.R. 1447, the Aviation Security Act, which ultimately became law
without Acxiom's proposed amendments. It also appears that Acxiom
courted Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and former Senator Tim
Hutchinson (R-AR) to support the amendments.
The Acxiom amendments would have created large loopholes in federal
privacy legislation. For instance, Acxiom's amendments to the DPPA
would have allowed state motor vehicle administrations to release
Social Security numbers, photographs, and possibly biometric
information to any government agency or business "in order to
authenticate the identity or information relating to an individual."
That language is broad enough to justify release of drivers'
information for almost any transaction, down to opening an account at
a video rental store.
The Acxiom language to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act would have
created a broad exemption allowing disclosure of non-public personal
information not only for anti-terrorism purposes, but also to
authenticate "information provided by or concerning a consumer." The
provision would have superceded state law, and information falling
within this exemption would not have been subject to the Fair Credit
Reporting Act. Because the proposed amendments allowed authentication
for "legitimate commercial purposes," the language would have
permitted use of "credit headers," compilations of personal
identification information, for even minor transactions.
EPIC documents on Acxiom's lobbying and proposed amendments:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/drivers/acxiomlobby.pdf
EPIC staff publication, Big Brother's Little Helpers:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=582302
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