On Tue, Jun 09, 1998 at 01:20:56PM -0400, Marshall Kragen wrote:
> No, the best protection so far is full disclosure and the FTC can
> certainly regulate that.
No, it cannot. How many times do we need to point out that
The Internet Is Global
and that
The Internet is Fast, Governments are Slow
This is not to say that your example isn't valid or that your concerns
aren't real. As someone who has worked in the health care area
(on two occasions), I Get It. I share those concerns. But...
> It is very easy for the FTC to enforce this. They have a right to
> subpoena this information from the clinic and determine what they have
> done with it.
...it is impossible for the FTC to enforce this. If there
is sufficient money to be made by trampling on the privacy rights
of individuals by selling their data to the highest bidder, then
somebody will do it, even if they have to move their entire operation
outside the USA to pull it off. This puts them completely beyond
the reach of the FTC, which can try to figure out who their domestic
customers (if any) are but is then in the position of trying to trace
the origins of complex databases which can be easily hidden, moved,
erased, disguised and a zillion other things.
And this is going to get done by an understaffed underfunded and
extremely clueless US government agency which has been caught
completely flat-footed by the 'net? One which is in total noncompliance
with the EFOIA? That's part of the same federal beauracracy that
brought us nuggets like the CDA?
I don't think so. If you're hoping the FTC will solve this problem,
I think you're badly mistaken. They don't have a chance in hell.
Which is really too bad, because it's a real and growing problem.
And it would be awfully handy if they *could* fix it. But it's
not gonna happen. If there is a solution, it will be technological
in nature, simply because only technology can keep up with...technology.
Which is why encryption and authentication are so important. (And, I
note in passing, the government that you are looking to for
a quick fix here, is the same government which is trying as hard as
it possibly can to restrict the use of crypto- related technologies.)
---Rsk
Rich Kulawiec
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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