NEGATIVE — DISADVANTAGE — GOVERNMENT DATABASE ABUSE 190

THE AFFIRMATIVE HAS IT ALL WRONG -- GOVERNMENT IS THE DANGER, NOT THE PRIVATE SECTOR

WE SHOULD NOT FEAR COMMERCIAL DATA EXCHANGES, BUT GOVERNMENT DATA ABUSE

This paper explores the tangled moral and economic issues surrounding the collection and transfer of information about consumers by businesses using the Internet and other networks. It concludes that we have little to fear from private collection and transfer of consumer information; our attention should shift to threats from government databases.

PRIVACY CONCERNS SHOULD REMAIN FOCUSED ON GOVERNMENT ABUSE, NOT PRIVATE SECTOR USE

Although some laws intended to protect privacy would clearly be harmful, not all concerns about privacy lack merit. Government-run databases present a terrible danger to civil liberties.(7) Consumers have long-held expectations, backed by contract and custom, that information given to professionals such as doctors and lawyers will be kept confidential. This paper, however, focuses on private rather than government databases, and on ordinary transactions (say, the purchase of shoes or garden supplies) rather than contracts for professional services.

WE MUST NOT CONFLATE GOVERNMENT ANDS PRIVATE DATABASES -- GOVERNMENT DATABASES ARE THE REAL THREAT

Most privacy advocates conflate private and government databases.(86) Some people view private databases as worse than government databases. Leslie Byrne of the Office of Consumer Affairs compares private data collection to Big Brother, saying, "With the possibility of anonymous data gathering, companies have become Big Brother to many. It's more than controlling your life in a sci-fi way; it's selling your life."(87)

But the claim that selling information about someone automatically involves seizing control of that person's life, or worse, cannot survive critical scrutiny. The First Amendment should protect the compilation of information in private databases. But government databases are different and should be tightly restricted. This section explores some of the philosophical distinctions between private and government databases, without attempting to provide detailed support for the more empirical claims that governments would abuse these databases.

GOVERNMENT DATABASE ABUSE IS FAR MORE SERIOUS THAN PRIVATE DATABASE ABUSE

Although both private and government databases can be abused, the abuse of government databases poses a more serious threat for one reason: government controls the courts, the police, and the army. Marketing agencies compile lists primarily to sell us things--a nuisance, perhaps, but little more than that. Governments compile lists primarily to enforce the law. Because the state claims so much more power than private parties--power that it then abuses--government databases pose terrible risks.

WE CANNOT PROTCT OURSELVES FROM INTRUSIVE GOVERNMENT LIKE WE CAN FROM INTRUSIVE PRIVATE PARTIES

We can protect our privacy from private marketers by not getting credit cards or not ordering from catalogs. We can have our names removed from marketing lists. We can buy software to stop our kids from giving out information on the Internet. We can scream obscenities at direct marketers who call during dinner. But we dare not do that to the Internal Revenue Service. In the course of enforcing tax, highway, and public health regulations, the government has far more power to collect information than any private company, and more power to act on that information once it is collected.

DANGER FROM GOVERNMENT DATABASES ARE VASTLY LARGER THAN FROM PRIVATE DATABASES

We should focus our concerns about privacy on the dangers posed by government databases, not private databases. The danger to our civil liberties from government databases is vastly greater.

BEST WAY TO PROTECT PRIVACY AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS IS TO LIMIT GOVERNMENT, NOT PRIVATE, GATHERING AND UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION

Danger to privacy and other rights is best restricted by limiting the power and scope of government, not by limiting the freedom of businesses to trade information.… As more commerce moves on-line, the free flow of information becomes more vital to the economy. Traditional stores and new Internet retail outlets alike can capture enormous benefits by making the best use of information about their customers. As more exchanges than ever take place between distant strangers over electronic networks, business will no longer be able to rely on the personal knowledge of neighbors and regular customers to tailor goods and services to particular tastes. Gossip will give way to electronic libraries as the best sources of consumer information.