Lexis and Privacy - Bill approaches.

Pressure from the FTC Which fielded hundreds of complaints about Lexis and
the social security number scrap) has prompted members of the Banking
Committee to add provisions to the most recent spending bills which
protect personal information (including social security numbers, phone
numbers, addresses, and so forth) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
This limits access to this information to credit agencies and otherwise
authorized entities.  (Of which I assume Lexis is not one).

It's not great protection, but it's something.

I urge everyone to take their own measures to protect personal data
regardless of what some piece of paper on a library shelf says is
protected.  The only real protection is not to allow release of the data
in the first place.

--
I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist
unicorn@schloss.li

This would be good if the bills were written well and thoughtfully. 
Unfortunately, they explicitly extend executive branch regulatory
jurisdiction to the Net. At least the one I read did; I understand there
are multiple versions. 

-Declan


On Tue, 24 Sep 1996, Black Unicorn wrote:

> 
> Pressure from the FTC Which fielded hundreds of complaints about Lexis and
> the social security number scrap) has prompted members of the Banking
> Committee to add provisions to the most recent spending bills which
> protect personal information (including social security numbers, phone
> numbers, addresses, and so forth) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
> This limits access to this information to credit agencies and otherwise
> authorized entities.  (Of which I assume Lexis is not one).
> 
> It's not great protection, but it's something.
> 
> I urge everyone to take their own measures to protect personal data
> regardless of what some piece of paper on a library shelf says is
> protected.  The only real protection is not to allow release of the data
> in the first place.
> 
> --
> I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist
> unicorn@schloss.li
> 


// declan@eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan@well.com //