Here's an excerpt from one of their points. Would this affect journalists seeking public records? "Access to personal information in public records shall be restricted for certain purposes. For example, accessing public records to obtain data for commercial solicitation should be prohibited. Other purposes shall be permitted: monitoring the government, research, educational purposes, tracing property ownership, and other traditional non-commercial purposes. Data brokers obtaining such data should be required to promise via contract, in return for receiving such data, to be subject to reasonable use restrictions on that data and to demand that those to whom the data is transferred also restrict uses and transfers..." -Declan -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Model Regime to Address Commercial Data Brokers Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 14:37:17 -0800 From: Chris Hoofnagle <hoofnagle@private> To: declan@private Hi Declan, I thought those on Politech would be interested in a paper that Dan Solove and I wrote to address the commercial data broker problem that is so prominently in the news. Dan and I have proposed sixteen reforms that would bring more accountability to the field. We're seeking comments on the draft--the abstract and TOC appear below. Regards, Chris http://ssrn.com/abstract=681902 A Model Regime of Privacy Protection DANIEL J. SOLOVE George Washington University Law School CHRIS JAY HOOFNAGLE Electronic Privacy Information Center West Coast Office March 8, 2005 GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 132 Abstract: VERSION 1.1 Privacy protection in the United States has often been criticized, but critics have too infrequently suggested specific proposals for reform. Recently, there has been significant legislative interest at both the federal and state levels in addressing the privacy of personal information. This was sparked when ChoicePoint, one of the largest data brokers in the United States with records on almost every adult American citizen, sold data on about 145,000 people to fraudulent businesses set up by identity thieves. In the aftermath of the ChoicePoint debacle, both of us have been asked by Congressional legislative staffers, state legislative policymakers, journalists, academics, and others about what specifically should be done to better regulate information privacy. In response to these questions, we believe that it is imperative to have a discussion of concrete legislative solutions to privacy problems. What appears below is our attempt at such an endeavor. Privacy experts have long suggested that information collection be consistent with Fair Information Practices. This Model Regime incorporates many of those practices and applies them specifically to the context of commercial data brokers such as Choicepoint. We hope that this will provide useful guidance to legislators and policymakers in crafting laws and regulations. We also intend this to be a work-in-progress in which we collaborate with others. We welcome input from other academics, policymakers, journalists, and experts as well as from the industries and businesses that will be subject to the regulations we propose. We invite criticisms and constructive suggestions, and we will update this Model Regime to incorporate the comments we find most helpful and illuminating. We also aim to discuss some of the comments we receive in a commentary section. To the extent to which we incorporate suggestions and commentary, and if those making suggestions want to be identified, we will graciously acknowledge those assisting in our endeavor. Notice, Consent, Control, and Access 1. Universal Notice 2. Meaningful Informed Consent 3. One-Step Exercise of Rights 4. Individual Credit Management 5. Access to and Accuracy of Personal Information Security of Personal Information 6. Secure Identification 7. Disclosure of Security Breaches Business Access to and Use of Personal Information 8. Social Security Number Use Limitation 9. Access and Use Restrictions for Public Records 10. Curbing Excessive Uses of Background Checks 11. Private Investigators Government Access to and Use of Personal Data 12. Limiting Government Access to Business and Financial Records 13. Government Data Mining 14. Control of Government Maintenance of Personal Information Privacy Innovation and Enforcement 15. Preserving the Innovative Role of the States 16. Effective Enforcement of Privacy Rights _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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