Show i The Voice oice V of Business is loss of privacy bugging W you 0 By L L. L LI President Chamber or of Com Commerce merce of the United States t rl r Mention privacy today and many many people think of Watergate op pr the more recent allegations of misbehavior by various cloak and microphone government agencies But the issue goes much much deeper than bugged olives and bungled burglaries Intelligence experts will tell you that most of the information they need can be obtained legally and openly from government pu publications lions newspapers etc The name of the game is gathering sorting and coordinating And that's wh where re the computer comes in Computers lower the cost of data storage and recovery and facilitate its transfer COMPUTERS COI ARE AUE extremely extremely ex ex- useful tools Modern society couldn't function without them Like the J automobile though they can be bed d dangerous nger us when misused But what constitutes misuse That's a question weve we've all got gotto gotto gotto to answer and it wont won't be easy Businesses collect sort store and sometimes trade vast amounts of personal data from simple mailing lists to credit ratings and even medical histories Such practices help to eliminate fraud hold down prices and improve service to the consumer They also result in the assembly of Ji a great deal of personal information that should perhaps be nobody's business but the subjects LIKEWISE government I i agencies collect sort store and trade similar data And in addition to the sources available to business the government has in its files census data tax returns police reports and amI business trade secrets Academic c records too are important I- I th Ith th to the individual and I I lo to in general l The Hh nS collecting I and tf i m ri nat t f hg ng f th il em mY are a f fe e ea i a a mixture of public and Sand private profit and nonprofit O 1 A i sample of the thorr thorny horny questions rah raised d by the maintenance of computer data databanks hanks banks Suppose you authorize release of your medical history to insurance company A. A Should company A be able to give it to Insurance company B without your knowledge Suppose company B D suspects you of ot trying to defraud it should a acourt acourt acourt court be able to get the data from company A Suppose private information about you or your business is stolen from the computer of a company or govern government ent agency authorized to have it Who is liable for the damage done to you Should data gathering data gathering agencies be allowed to consolidate consolidate consolidate con con- thc their r separate files on you on the grounds of efficiency ef et ef- ef If not where should we draw the line OPENING government files to public inspection by law sounds like a noble idea but would you want Vant your file to be open to the public In practice this is more of or a problem for businesses than for individuals Businessmen fear with good that will reason competitors use such laws to get trade secrets and other valuable information If the files are open to the public can roan foreign governments be successfully successfully suc sue ully excluded Should one government agency be able to trade data with another to facilitate a criminal I investigation for example This question is especially tricky when it comes to tax returns Since an individual individual in in- is required by law to tofile tofile tofile file an accurate te return he tie could invoke the Constitutional protection against self self- incrimination if his answers could be used against him in a criminal prosecution HOW MUCH personal data should government be permitted permitted permitted per per- to gather Through the census Through the school system Through i investigative agencies In its own personnel personnel personnel per per- files And who should have access to it In what form J Those o are re just justa a few of the the problems There is plenty of room for honest disagreement among honorable people of all political persuasions And there is a very great need to begin thinking carefully and methodically about the best solutions for a free people |