FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Ari Schwartz, CDT Email: ari@cdt.org Phone: 202-637-9800

Tuesday, September 5, 2000 ã Two GAO reports, expected to be released this week, investigate different pieces of the privacy practices of federal government Web sites. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) believes that the reports will show that agencies are, for the most part, paying greater attention to privacy and following current law and administration policy. However, these laws and policies need to be updated for citizens to feel comfortable interacting with their government online.

"Unlike the private sector, all government systems of records are governed by a federal law," CDT Policy Analyst Ari Schwartz explained, "but the Privacy Act has not been updated in 25 years. CDT's research and the new GAO reports show that it is time to strengthen this important statute for the Internet age."

The first of the reports - requested by Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) in November 1999 - is expected to find that almost all of the major federal government Web sites are now posting privacy policies, but that agencies still lack guidance on how to best protect privacy. The report will likely show significant improvement from the April 15, 1999 study conducted by CDT, but will likely point to areas where current policy is lacking.

The second report - requested by Representative Richard K. Armey (R-TX), Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA), and Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) earlier this summer - is expected to find that government Web site policies do not match the FTC's fair information practice principles of notice, choice, security and access. CDT believes that many of this report's findings will also serve to highlight fundamental deficiencies in current law and policy for federal collections of information.

Recent events, including the Office of Drug Control Policy's use of profiling cookies in violation of the White House privacy policy, have caused many citizens to raise concerns about how the government collects information online. The Clinton Administration has begun to pay more attention to these concerns with recent guidance on Web site privacy policies and a ban on all use of cookies on agency Web sites. Yet, these actions have been reactive to privacy gaffes instead of proactively protecting individuals in the spirit of the long outdated Privacy Act of 1974.

Back to Press Releases

Free Speech | Data Privacy | Government Surveillance | Cryptography | Domain Names | International | Bandwidth | Security | Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project | Terrorism | Authentication | Right to Know | Spam

Our Mission / Get Involved / Staff / Publications / Links / Search CDT / Jobs / Action! Previous Headlines | Legislative Tracking | CDT's Privacy Policy