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<DIV><STRONG><FONT size=5>Agencies Not Protecting Privacy Rights, GAO
Says<BR></FONT></STRONG>
<P><FONT size=-1>By Robert O'Harrow Jr.<BR>Washington Post Staff
Writer<BR>Wednesday, April 5, 2006; A09<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P>Government agencies that use private information services for law
enforcement, counterterrorism and other investigations often do not follow
federal rules to protect Americans' privacy, according to a report yesterday by
the Government Accountability Office.</P>
<P>The Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and two other
agencies examined by the GAO spent about $30 million last year on companies that
maintain billions of electronic files about adults' current and past addresses,
family members and associates, buying habits, personal finances, listed and
unlisted phone numbers, and much more.</P>
<P>But those agencies often do not limit the collection and use of information
about law-abiding citizens, as required by the Privacy Act of 1974 and other
laws. The agencies also don't ensure the accuracy of the information they are
buying, according to the GAO report. That's in part because of a lack of clear
guidance from the agencies and the Office of Management and Budget on guidelines
known as "fair information practices," the report said.</P>
<P>At the same time, the contractors are not bound by those "fair information
practices," and they often don't comply with all of them, the report said.
Companies do not notify individuals when information is collected, for instance.
They limit individuals' access to records about themselves, and they generally
do not have provisions for correcting mistakes, the report said.</P>
<P>"The nature of the information reseller business is essentially at odds with
the principles," the report said. "Resellers make it their business to collect
as much personal information as possible."</P>
<P>The 83-page report, the subject of a congressional hearing yesterday, was
spurred in part by massive security breaches reported last year by ChoicePoint
Inc. and LexisNexis in which sensitive files involving almost 200,000 people
were sold to fraud artists.</P>
<P>It highlights a difficult truth about the government's increasing reliance on
information services: By outsourcing the building of rich dossiers, the
government is sidestepping checks on surveillance approved in the wake of
domestic spy scandals involving the FBI, Army and other agencies in the 1960s
and 1970s.</P>
<P>The report recommends that Congress consider requiring private information
contractors to "more fully adhere" to fair information practices.</P>
<P>Information services play an important but quiet role in homeland security
and criminal investigations. ChoicePoint officials last year acknowledged that
they serve in effect as a private intelligence service for the government.</P>
<P>Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's
subcommittee on commercial and administrative law, said the hearing was held
because the ability of private information services to collect information and
the government's use of those services have grown far beyond existing laws and
oversight.</P>
<P>Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University, said the information
industry delivers information more efficiently than ever before, helping
investigators in many ways. But he told the congressional panel that the
government needs to ensure that the information it buys is accurate while giving
people a chance to correct mistakes. "Accuracy that is good enough for marketing
is not necessarily good enough to detain a suspect," said Swire, who served as
the chief privacy counselor in the Clinton administration White House.</P><!-- start the copyright for the articles -->
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