Editorial: Privacy loopholes riddle bill

Friday, Nov. 3, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

Media coverage of the political campaigns naturally has overshadowed what is happening in Congress -- or maybe more appropriately, what isn't happening. Congress has been unable so far to wrap up its business, so it will have to return after the elections for a lame-duck session to deal with important issues.

One of the sleeper issues is privacy, and it is troubling that legislation that was supposed to prevent businesses from gaining access to Social Security numbers has been turned on its head, containing loopholes that actually will do the opposite of what was intended. Last week Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., a privacy advocate, decried the sudden turn of events, noting the bill was drafted to stop financial institutions and telemarketers from securing this most sensitive of personal information. "In fact, this bill, for the very first time, enshrines into federal law the ability of these corporate behemoths to buy, sell and share the Social Security numbers of millions of Americans," Bryan said. Fortunately President Clinton has weighed in, saying last Friday that if the loopholes are left in, he likely will veto the legislation.

Many key members of Congress were embarrassed by criticism in 1999 that they did the bidding of large financial institutions in refusing to pass privacy guarantees. So at the outset of this year these same congressman vowed that they would pass legislation protecting privacy, but this just hasn't happened. There certainly will be an urge by Congress, then, to pass anything that can be tagged as privacy protection legislation -- no matter how much a misnomer it might be. Bryan is correct: It would be worse to pass legislation giving away privacy rights. Once these privacy erosions are part of law, no one could seriously believe that a future session of Congress would defy the powerful financial services industry, and restore these important safeguards for Americans.