Obama Administration Vows to Protect Privacy

The Obama White House has joined the crusade for a “privacy bill of rights,” saying Americans need to be protected from intrusive data gathering. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Lawrence E. Strickling testified before the Senate Commerce Committee to sound the alarm and vow swift and forceful action.

Of course, if the data gathering is so intrusive, one might think that it would be more obvious. On the contrary, one of the most-cited arguments against data gathering is that it occurs in the background, without one being aware that one is supposedly under surveillance.

There is no guarantee of privacy in the Constitution and, although most civil liberties groups do not seem concerned by it, there is an inherent conflict between freedom of expression, not to mention the public's oft-cited “right to know” and the right to privacy.

The Obama White House's action marks a sharp turn from the hands-off-the-Internet policy followed by recent administrations of both parties. Its Congressional champions include Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

A top aide to Sen. Kerry admonished a group of Web publishers during the last Congressional session, telling them their industry “has a problem” and saying that Sen. Kerry intended to fix it,, as part of his effort to “save newspapers.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) cautioned that government should move carefully in its zeal to muzzle online publishing, lest it “kill the goose that lays the golden egg” by stifling the growth of online information and ecommerce sites.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC),whichis likely to be anointed to carry out the Administration's crusade,has no such fears however.

"The sky won't fall down on Internet commerce," FTCChairman JonLeibowitzsaid."It's going to continue.”Leibowitz did not say what effect he thought the regulations would have on news and information sites which rely on advertising and which often provide an alternative to mainstream media outlets.