A survey by Privacilla found that new government information-sharing programs were announced 47 times within the last 18 months, or a little more than once every two weeks. Under the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act , government agencies must publish a notice in the Federal Register before sharing files containing citizens' personal information. But the Act only covers records involving federal benefits or federal personnel and excludes many more, including certain law enforcement and tax files. The report comes a day ahead of a Federal Trade Commission workshop examining how businesses merge and exchange consumer information in Washington. The FTC should also examine how government collects, disperses and stores private citizens' data, Harper said.
Government poses a greater threat to privacy than the private sector.
While sharing databases may streamline government and cut costs, it may also lead to questionable practices, privacy advocates argue. Just look what happened when the Census Bureau shared information with the military during World War II and 112,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese origin were rounded up and dumped into internment camps . A more recent example occurred in San Diego, where the County Board of Supervisors ruled that social services data could be shared with the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the purpose of locating undocumented immigrants, said Beth Given, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Although many of the worst-case scenarios resulting from data sharing are purely hypothetical, government attempts to compile comprehensive dossiers on citizens worry privacy advocates. I think the answer is no.