http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,43265,00.html IRS: Protector of the People? By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 11:50 a.m. Apr. 24, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- The IRS has earned a reputation of being staffed by humorless agents, merciless auditors, and a perceived commitment to civil liberties that ranks somewhere just south of Ghengis Khan's. So why is it winning applause as the most privacy-sensitive agency in the United States? At a National Institute for Government Innovation summit, an IRS official claimed on Monday that the federal agency everyone loves to hate is doing good on privacy. "The loss of privacy is the No. 1 fear of Americans," said Charlene Thomas, the IRS' deputy privacy advocate. "It outranks nuclear holocaust in surveys." For example, Thomas said the General Accounting Office selected the Privacy Impact Assessment, which her office developed, as a government best practice. It's a guideline for designing and operating databases, and states: "Information must be used only for a necessary and lawful purpose.... Any information used must be sufficiently accurate, relevant, timely, and complete to assure fair treatment of the individual." As proof of its privacy commitment, Thomas said that the IRS will likely move away from its current training system, which requires new agents to be trained using "live" tax data, including the real names and financial data of taxpayers. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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