Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 11:32:49 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Privacy Villain of the Week: Sen. Dianne Feinstein
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 15:36:19 -0400
From: James Plummer <jplummer@consumeralert.org>
Subject: NCP: Privacy Villain of the Week - Sen. Dianne Feinstein

Privacy Villain of the Week: Sen. Dianne Feinstein

When Oracle software CEO Larry Ellison 
<http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/010927villain.htm> announced his 
support for a National ID card program heavily dependent on his own 
company's software, it didn't come as much of a shock to 
industry-watchers who had seen his company progress from its humble 
beginnings as a CIA contractor to a firm that employed high-priced 
Clinton-connected private investigators to dig through the trash of 
Microsoft supporters.

But some privacy experts may have been surprised to hear that Sen. 
Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) <http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein> has 
endorsed Ellison's concept of a national ID card. 
<http://www0.mercurycenter.com/local/center/id101701.htm> After all, 
isn't this the senator who goes about demanding immediate regulation 
of business and consumer-to-business practices in the name of 
"privacy"?  <http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010817S0015>

Of course, Ellison's Oracle would benefit from the "free" software 
doing so, in the form of installation and upgrade fees. And the rest 
of Feinstein's home turf -- the Bay Area, Silicon Valley -- would 
benefit tremendously from the further databasing of Americans. 
Microchips, subdatabases, (allegedly) secure bandwidth 
infrastructure, etc., etc.

Feinstein has been proposing national IDs since at least 1995. 
<http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa237es.html> She has variously 
supported nationally standardized driver's licenses and cards with 
biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, retinal scans 
<http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_2.11.txt> and voice readings 
required for anyone with a job (to fight illegal immigration, doncha 
know <http://www.aclu.org/vote-guide/Senate_S1664.html>).

Feinstein and Ellison's efforts are reportedly falling flat 
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-102401idcards.story 
 >, but that doesn't mean Americans serious about their privacy should 
not keep an eye on those who would seize it. As seen here, they often 
come back to the issue after a defeat, seemingly angling for a return 
engagement as Privacy Villain of the Week.

The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are 
projects of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. For more 
information on the NCC Privacy Group, see www.nccprivacy.org or 
contact James Plummer at 202-467-5809 or jplummer@consumeralert.org . 
To remove yourself from this list, just respond to this message with 
a removal request. To access this release directly, go to 
<http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/011025villain.htm>



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