NEGATIVE-PRIVACY-SOLVENCY-GENERAL 121

GOVERNMENT WILL BE UNABLE TO ENFORCE PRIVACY REGULATIONS

GOVERNMENT ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS REGARDING PRIVACY IS VERY LIMITED

Fred H. Cate, Brookings Institution, 1997; PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE, EE2001 -mfp p. 123-124

The present system of enforcement is not perfect. It is expensive and time consuming and thus often discriminates against parties with limited resources. However , treating enforcement of privacy rights differently from the enforcement of other highly valued rights is impossible to justify.

PRIVACY IS HARD TO ENFORCE FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Fred H. Cate, Brookings Institution, 1997; PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE, EE2001 -mfp p. 79

Privacy-based controls on the government's collection and use of data, outside of the criminal investigation and prosecution context, are very limited. Those controls often apply to limited categories of information or to specified agencies. They often restrict only the government's dissemination, rather than collection, use, or storage, of personal information, and they frequently create procedural, rather than substantive, obligations. Even when they do apply, privacy controls applicable to the public sector are characterized by sweeping exemptions and a general preference, clearly reflected in the FOIA, for disclosure as the norm. Enforcement of privacy protections usually requires recourse to the courts and is expensive, time consuming, and, in many cases, ineffective, because of the absence of firm substantive rights. Privacy advocates have widely criticized the present approach to privacy protection from government intrusion as inadequate.

GOVERNMENT DOES NOT ENFORCE PRIVACY LAWS WELL

Fred H. Cate, Brookings Institution, 1997; PRIVACY IN THE INFORMATION AGE, EE2001 -mf p p. 122

This lack of government enforcement is characteristic of many legally protected rights. The government does not usually initiate enforcement of First Amendment or Fourth Amendment rights, for example. An individual who believes that the government has abridged his' right to free expression or searched his house without a warrant may sue the government, but the government does not enforce those rights. Outside of regulated industries and offenses for which criminal penalties are provided, the government plays little role in enforcing its laws. Even when criminal penalties are available, such as for violation of the copyright law, the government rarely initiates litigation. Certainly for tortious activities, including those covered by the privacy torts, the government wholly defers to the individuals allegedly harmed to pursue their own judicial remedy. Litigation, instigated by private parties who believe their legally protected rights have been infringed, is the principal means by which civil laws are enforced in the United States today.

INDUSTRY WILL RESIST ATTEMPTS TO RESTRICT THEIR ABILITY TO GATHER AND USE PERSONAL DATA

TERESA DIXON MURRAY; The Plain Dealer, March 20, 2000; Pg. 1C TITLE: KEEPING YOUR LIFE PRIVATE; PROTECTING PERSONAL DATA IS BECOMING TOUGHER IN THE INFORMATION AGE // acs-VT2001

Gerri Detweiler, a consumer advocate - and president of a Web site that pays consumers for viewing ads - said businesses from credit agencies to home improvement companies to retailers will fight any restrictions.

"It's hard to see there will be strong self-regulatory measures," she said. "You see how hard the banking industry fought against restrictions on releasing information.

"Industry knows how to get this information now, and they're not going to it give up without a fight."