AFFIRMATIVE-CONSUMER/INTERNET-SIGNIFICANCE 355

NEW DYNAMICS OF INFORMATION IS A HUGE THREAT TO PRIVACY RIGHTS

CORPORATE ASSAULT ON PERSONAL PRIVACY IS THE GREATEST THREAT TO FREEDOM IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

RICHARD P. FOX MD, President-Elect, American Psychoanalytic Assn.,

Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1999, SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 6; TITLE: PERSONAL PRIVACY // acs-EE2001

The unrelenting assault on personal privacy on behalf of corporate interests is rapidly becoming the single greatest threat to personal freedom and autonomy in the upcoming century.

THE ABILITY TO ESTABLISH A DIGITAL TRAIL MAKES CURRENT PRIVACY INVASIONS DIFFERENT FROM ALL THOSE IN THE PAST

Edward C. Baig, Business Week, April 5, 1999; Pg. 84 TITLE: PRIVACY // acs-VT2001

This train is on a collision course with consumer sensibilities. Personal information is vulnerable to abuse. Failure to apply checks and balances today will change our lives and our notions of what belongs to us as individuals. ''The ability to establish a digital trail is unlike anything we've had so far in history,'' says Constance E. Bagley, a Stanford University lecturer in law.

THE UNRESTRICTED COLLECTION OF PERSONAL DATA IMPINGES ON FUNDAMENTAL LIBERAL RIGHTS

Neil Weinstock Netanel, Arnold, White & Durkee Centennial Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law, March 2000; California Law Review, "Cyberspace Self-Governance: A Skeptical View from Liberal Democratic Theory," EE2001-hxm lxnx

The New York Times site is not atypical, except that it purports to comply with a relatively high standard of customer privacy protection. n316 Our cyberactivity regularly generates information about us that is collected and used by others. n317 In fact, advances in digital communication, storage, and processing technology have created unprecedented possibilities for  [*474]  recording and exploiting information regarding individuals' activities and preferences. n318 The ramifications are profound. It is not merely that seemingly infinite amounts of information can be collected and permanently stored. Digital information processing also entails aggregating previously scattered bits of information from different contexts. n319 It thus produces virtually limitless possibilities for compiling, analyzing, and systematizing such information. n320

Surveys indicate that the American public has widespread apprehension about the use and misuse of personal information, especially in connection with Internet activity. n321 That in turn has prompted concern in the Clinton Administration that consumers will not use the Internet for electronic commerce unless they are assured about personal privacy protection. n322 But the issue of personal data protection goes beyond individual apprehension and the development of electronic commerce. It is widely contended (although less so in the United States than in other Western democracies) that the unrestricted collection, storage, and compilation of personal data - whether at the hands of private parties or the government - impinges upon fundamental liberal rights. n323