In 1998, Vice President Al Gore has proposed, with great fanfare, an Electronic Bill of Rights. And it must be protected. We need an electronic bill of rights for this electronic age. In targeting the uses of information in the private sector and allowing government-sponsored information gathering to grow, this administration has turned the privacy problem upside down. The FDIC has already received thousands of comments from people outraged at this prospect.
People know the difference between being treated as a citizen and being treated as a suspect.
Imagine the anger and fear that recent immigrants, African Americans and Hispanics will feel, knowing their banks are recording information about their jobs and patterns of withdrawals and deposits. The proposal sidesteps the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects our privacy from government intrusions. If the police suspect a U.S. citizen of a crime, they would need a warrant to legally see his or her private papers. The Know Your Customer proposal forces banks to become agents of the police, spying and reporting on their own customers without ever obtaining a warrant.