Declan McCullagh
Wed, 12 Jun 2002 20:08:58 -0700
[Naturally everyone should be entitled as a matter of right and logic to take steps to protect their privacy. The debate in North Dakota is about what regulations aimed at businesses are necessary and appropriate. Unlike government agencies, businesses do not have a monopoly; at the very least, it means we should be more wary of regulations. It also means we should weigh the total costs of the regulations against their benefits, consider whether this is a good precedent to set, and so on. I remain suspicious about broad "we must protect privacy at all costs claims." I can imagine voters approving a bill virtually muzzling credit reporting firms, for instance, on privacy grounds -- and then complaining bitterly when the unintended consequence is to deny Americans credit cards and home mortgages. See also: http://www.state.nd.us/sec/pdf/referredmeasureno2ballotlang2002.pdf --Declan]
--- Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 20:29:06 -0400 To: Declan McCullagh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: BSteinhardt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Financial Privacy Victory in North Dakota Declan, I know you are likely to have a different view, but the privacy community earned a rather remarkable victory in North Dakota yesterday, when better than 70% of the electorate voted to reinstate the nation's strongest state financial privacy law. North Dakota law once again requires that bank customers give permission (opt-in) before their sensitive financial information can be sold. This despite the fact that our pro-privacy coalition was outspent , at least, 6 to 1 by the banks. Here is an excerpt from the ACLU statement. The full statement is available at http://www.aclu.org/news/2002/n061202a.html Barry Steinhardt NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today congratulated the people of North Dakota for defending their privacy by rejecting a ballot measure that would have allowed banks to share customers' information without their permission. "This vote was a stunning defeat for the powerful financial companies who were trying to bamboozle the citizens of North Dakota into acting against their own interests," said Jennifer Ring, Executive Director of the ACLU of the Dakotas. ... "The results in North Dakota are significant not just in that state but nationally," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program. "If the voters in a small midwestern state vote for privacy by more than a three-to-one margin despite an intense media campaign urging them not to, then politicians in Washington and Sacramento and Albany ought to be listening." ''''' The pro-privacy campaign was waged by a group of citizen-volunteers led by Charlene Nelson, a homemaker and mother of three working out of her home in Casselton. Until a last-minute $25,000 contribution by the ACLU for radio ads, the privacy forces had reported donations of just $2,450 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------