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Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 15:36:19 -0400
From: James Plummer <jplummer_at_consumeralert.org>
Subject: NCP: Privacy Villain of the Week - Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Privacy Villain of the Week:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein
When Oracle software CEO Larry Ellison
<http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/010927villain.htm> announced his support
for a National ID card program heavily dependent on his own company's
software, it didn't come as much of a shock to industry-watchers who had
seen his company progress from its humble beginnings as a CIA contractor to
a firm that employed high-priced Clinton-connected private investigators to
dig through the trash of Microsoft supporters.
But some privacy experts may have been surprised to hear that Sen. Dianne
Feinstein (D-Ca.) <http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein> has endorsed Ellison's
concept of a national ID card.
<http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/id101701.htm> After all, isn't
this the senator who goes about demanding immediate regulation of business
and consumer-to-business practices in the name of
"privacy"? <http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010817S0015>
Of course, Ellison's Oracle would benefit from the "free" software doing
so, in the form of installation and upgrade fees. And the rest of
Feinstein's home turf -- the Bay Area, Silicon Valley -- would benefit
tremendously from the further databasing of Americans. Microchips,
subdatabases, (allegedly) secure bandwidth infrastructure, etc., etc.
Feinstein has been proposing national IDs since at least 1995.
<http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa237es.html> She has variously supported
nationally standardized driver's licenses and cards with biometric
identifiers such as fingerprints, retinal scans
<http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_2.11.txt> and voice readings required
for anyone with a job (to fight illegal immigration, doncha know
<http://www.aclu.org/vote-guide/Senate_S1664.html>).
Feinstein and Ellison's efforts are reportedly falling flat
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-102401idcards.story>,
but that doesn't mean Americans serious about their privacy should not keep
an eye on those who would seize it. As seen here, they often come back to
the issue after a defeat, seemingly angling for a return engagement as
Privacy Villain of the Week.
The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are projects
of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. For more information on
the NCC Privacy Group, see www.nccprivacy.org or contact James Plummer at
202-467-5809 or jplummer_at_consumeralert.org . To remove yourself from this
list, just respond to this message with a removal request. To access this
release directly, go to http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/011025villain.htm
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Received on Oct 25 2001
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