Vol. 1 No. 9 (January 2003)
The Newsletter of the Commonweal Institute
www.commonwealinstitute.org
"I look forward to a great future for
-- John F. Kennedy honoring Robert Frost,
ENDORSEMENTS
"In these challenging times, we need an advocacy think tank like
Commonweal Institute to communicate our principles and programs in ways that
will resonate with the broad public and empower citizens to take a more active
role in our democracy. Commonweal takes a strategic approach to advancing
issues in a way that will help decision-makers be proactive in confronting the
challenges of the future." - Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco,
8th CD-CA, Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives
GET INVOLVED
If you agree with Nancy Pelosi (see above), there are a number of ways you can
help the Commonweal Institute achieve its goals.
Right now, as you read, you can simply forward the Uncommon Denominator
to friends and family who might be interested in learning about the Commonweal
Institute. Getting the word out is crucial.
You can also join our network of donors building the Commonweal
Institute. Your tax-deductible contribution is vital to making the Commonweal
Institute an effective organization. $100 would help so much! Even a
contribution of $10 or $20 will make a difference because there are so many
moderates and progressives! Click here to
contribute online.
Finally, there are a number of volunteer
positions available. The Commonweal Institute relies on the energies of its
talented volunteers to build the organization, increase its website content,
and extend its outreach capabilities.
AROUND THE CORNER
Always evolving, the Uncommon Denominator
proudly introduces a new section devoted to the identification and analysis of
emerging cultural and political trends. Lying "around the corner" as
they do, these trends merit particular attention because they hold both peril
and opportunity. The decisions we make today - or do not make - can have
profound consequences for future generations, so it is important to address
such issues now, as they arise, rather than fighting a rear-guard action down
the road.
How can we begin to shape constructive attitudes and behaviors toward new
technologies, social phenomena, and economic or political changes? How should
we interpret and respond to such developments, and
what should we be on the look-out for? What are the policy implications of
emerging cultural trends? These are among the questions we should have in mind
as we try to look around the corner.
This first installment, written by Philip Leggiere,
takes on the issue of new data-collection and data-analysis technology
and the potential threats it poses to personal privacy.
Until recently, "intelligence" technologies like data warehousing and
database mining seemed part of an arcane nerds-only realm, far removed from
everyday life and politics. The wake-up call came in November, 2002, when news
arrived of the existence of a Pentagon-affiliated "Office of Information
Awareness" and its subsidiary project, "Total Information
Awareness" (TIA), a proposed mega-database of privately compiled and
public information on every American citizen.
TIA, the brainchild of Admiral John Poindexter (of Iran-Contra fame), has been
designed to provide both government intelligence analysts and Federal and local
law enforcement officials with instantaneous access to personal information
collected from every available source. Your credit card
bills? Fair game. Medical
records? Fair game. Travel itineraries,
supermarket receipts, real estate transactions, Internet histories, driving
records, school transcripts, even library books - all fair game, apparently
without the need for a search warrant (at least according to preliminary
Pentagon descriptions of the "demonstration project").
Whether it's currently technically feasible or not,
the specter of TIA has brought home in a dramatic way the fact that we live in
what author Simson Garfinkel
has called a "Database Nation." That may not surprise anyone who has
grown up since the advent of computerized records. What's
seldom realized, however, is the extent to which the personal data collected
about us has taken on a phantom life of its own in cyberspace.
Highly detailed information about our personal lifestyles, social habits,
political activities, and financial histories can now be freely circulated,
bought and traded by corporations we've never done
business with or even heard of. We can be profiled in
minute detail without our knowledge, consent, or control - and, in large part,
without any effective public regulation.
This data warehousing and database mining is made possible by the convergence
of new hardware and software technologies. Such as?
Data storage warehouses capable of storing information by "petabytes" (one petabyte
equals about 300 billion pages). Super-high-speed parallel
processing computers. Advanced "intelligent
agent" searchware. Through the 1980s,
database search technology was capable of relating only a limited number of
variables (e.g., how many of our customers are female, married, over 25 and
live in the Southwest?). Now, data mining tools can not only analyze many
variables over multiple databases, but can "learn" from the process,
identifying hidden patterns in apparently random data and piecing together
predictions about future behavior.
Privacy law hasn't been able to keep up. Although the
1974 Privacy Law prohibits government from compiling dossiers on individuals
without probable cause of criminality, its protection does not prevent private
companies from doing so nor from providing them to government agencies.
Currently, private companies may collect and analyze online and offline
transaction information without the knowledge and consent of the individuals
profiled, and use that information almost entirely at their own discretion.
Recent legislation - including the Cyber Security Enhancement Act of 2002 and
the Online Personal Privacy and Consumer Privacy Protection Acts of 2002 - do
not adequately address these issues.
The legislation fails to require informed consent for the sale and use of
personal information by database compilers, to ensure citizens' access to
information disclosed about them to third parties, or to provide mechanisms for
correcting false information. The recent U.S.A. Patriot Act also radically
expands the ability of government to access profiling information from Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) without specific evidence of wrongdoing.
The Magna Carta for intelligence technology
legislation was written in 1973, when a commission of
the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), convened by then
Attorney General Elliott Richardson, drafted a "Code for Fair Information
Practices." Most importantly, it called for public oversight of
record-keeping systems and the ability of individuals to access the information
compiled about them, to prevent it from being used
without their consent, and to correct false or misleading information. Sadly,
this code has been largely ignored by both
corporations and government.
The time is right for a legislative program to turn
1) The Privacy Act of 1974 should be
amended to include protection for personal data held by private third
parties.
2) Specific permission must be granted for all
disclosure of personal information to third parties, and individuals should
have the right to inspect and, if necessary, correct all information concerning
them.
3) Safeguards must be implemented to prevent the
disclosure of privately compiled databases to law enforcement without probable
cause.
4) Database security technologies should be promoted or
mandated as a means of protecting the privacy and anonymity of information held
in databases.
5) Appropriate penalties for the misuse of personal information should be implemented to ensure governmental and corporate
accountability.
WIT AND WISDOM
"U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan
says he can think of no reason to attack
QUOTED!
"It's a serious problem that people of every aberrant group known to man
can apply to the federal trough. . . . And I think the vast majority of
American people find this intolerable." - Pat Robertson, "The
700 Club," March 5, 2001
CHECK IT OUT
If you've been following the Uncommon Denominator, you know that we're
not enamored of SUVs. They're bad for the environment,
dangerous to other drivers, and corruptive of
At last! And they may become
even more uncool if an organization called the Detroit Project, headed by newspaper
columnist Arianna Huffington,
succeeds in airing two controversial TV ads which explicitly link SUVs to
terrorism.
"This is George," one of the ads says. "This is the gas that
George bought for his SUV. This is the oil company executive that sold the gas
that George bought for his SUV. These are the countries where the executive
bought the oil, that made the gas that George bought
for his SUV. And these are the terrorists who get money from those countries
every time George fills up his SUV." The tagline: "Oil money supports
some terrible things. What kind of mileage does your SUV get?"
For background on the rise of the SUV in American culture, you might want to
check out Keith Bradsher's High and Mighty: SUVs - The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That
Way (Public Affairs, 2002).
EYE ON THE RIGHT
In the Dec. 27, 2002, edition of the Los Angeles Times, historians Eric Foner and Glenda Gilmore contributed an op-ed
piece about the conservative effort to tar academics as
"unpatriotic" when they oppose the Bush administration's policies. In
the course of their argument, Foner and Gilmore refer
to a variety of conservative individuals or organizations, including Campus
Watch, William J. Bennett, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, and
Lynne Cheney.
What makes this particular list so interesting is not just that they express
similar ideas, but that they all take money from the same few right-wing
sources. Follow along:
Campus Watch is part of the Middle East Forum, which is
funded by The Lynde and Harry Bradley
Foundation. William Bennett is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation,
funded by The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation,
Richard Mellon Scaife, the Olin Foundation, and the
Coors' Castle Rock Foundation, among others. Bennett's organization Empower
America is funded by The Lynde
and Harry Bradley Foundation, Richard Mellon Scaife,
and the Olin Foundation. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is
funded by, yes, the Lynde and Harry Bradley
Foundation, Richard Mellon Scaife, the Olin
Foundation, and Coors' Castle Rock Foundation, among others. Lynne Cheney,
wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, is a Senior Fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute, funded by The Lynde and Harry
Bradley Foundation, the Olin Foundation, Coors' Castle Rock Foundation, and the
Smith Richardson Foundation.
What this illustrates is the remarkable effectiveness of the right-wing
movement in disseminating a narrow ideological perspective through a wide
variety of channels. While readers might get the impression that there is a
range of viewpoints being expressed, quite the
opposite is true. A handful of right-wing foundations and philanthropists are
systematically "seeding" political debate in an effort to create the
impression of consensus and to shape conventional wisdom. They operate largely
behind the scenes, while their paid minions present the public face of conservative
ideology.
It is incumbent upon the rest of us to be vigilant in calling attention to this
situation. An excellent starting point is Media Transparency, an online
source of information about the "media money trail." You can also
refer people the Commonweal Institute's collection of links to articles, reports,
and resources on the right-wing movement.
HAPPENINGS
The Commonweal Institute is co-sponsoring two Stanford University presentations
by author Janine Benyus, whose work focuses on
how human society can more effectively address environmental problems through
creative solutions based on the "genius of the natural world" rather
than on the older industrial model of "heat, beat, and treat." Benyus will speak January 28 ("Surrounded by Genius:
Inviting Nature to the Design Table") and January 29 ("Surrounded by
Genius: What Can Nature Teach Us About Sustainable
Business?"). The talks are open to the public; for tickets call
650-328-7756.
© 2002 The Commonweal Institute
To subscribe to this free e-newsletter, send an email to:
subscribe-news@commonwealinstitute.org.
If you no longer wish to receive the Uncommon Denominator, send an email
to: unsubscribe-news@commonwealinstitute.org.