Bush administration blasted over privacy

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey blasted his fellow Republicans in the George W. Bush administration Friday for a “lust” to violate individual privacy rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

“Since 9/11, I believe people in the government, very much so in the Justice Department, have been playing out a lust for our information that is not consistent with who we have been as a nation and what our constitutional freedoms are,” said Armey, a longtime privacy advocate, during a conference in Washington sponsored by the Privacy and American Business think tank.

“Their rationale has been, ‘the threat of terrorism is so great, so immediate and is so ubiquitous that you must sacrifice your personal liberties and personal rights to privacy to us,'” he added.

Armey, who retired from the House in January, mentioned the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Carnivore e-mail spying program and the proposed Terrorism Information and Prevention System, known as TIPS, which would have encouraged U.S. citizens to report suspicious activity by others. TIPS was killed by Congress.

“I believe these young lawyers in the Department of Justice saw this as their moment to get Carnivore and all these things,” Armey said of the several snooping measures proposed in response to terrorism. “There’s nothing more creative than a government person wanting more power.

“Too many people in America are buying into it,” he added. “I personally made a decision that it is possible to secure our safety while we sustain our liberties.”

A U.S. Department of Justice spokesman disagreed with Armey’s criticism, saying legislation like the USA Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. have given his department a valuable terrorism-fighting tool. The Patriot Act expanded the department’s surveillance powers.

“We at the Justice Department are doing everything we can within the Constitution and the laws passed by the American Congress, of which Mr. Armey was until recently a member, to protect the American people from terrorism,” the spokesman said. “Congress still has oversight of all our activities.”

Armey also said he was concerned about proposed data-mining systems, in which the government would collect widespread electronic information on individuals into one database to analyze it. In 1958 he purchased a shotgun, in 1972 he purchased a Jeep, and in 1978 he looked at land in remote Montana, he noted, three things a member of an extreme survivalist group might do.

“Could you see the file they’re putting together on me?” he asked. “All of the sudden, I’m under surveillance.”

Private companies should be trusted to keep those separate pieces of information rather than the government, Armey said, because private companies have an incentive to keep customers happy, while the government doesn’t. He said he occasionally lies when asked for personal information he doesn’t think he should give out, such as his social security number.

The argument that if you’re innocent, the data collection shouldn’t bother you is bogus, Armey added. “‘If you’re innocent it should be OK to invade your privacy’ — that should be something that turns all of us into raving lunatics for protest,” Armey said. “If I’m innocent, I am bothered. They ought to leave me alone if I’m innocent.”

Armey even touched on Internet peer-to-peer file trading, saying artists deserve to be compensated for their work. But lawsuits forcing Internet providers to turn over names of file-swappers, such as the Recording Industry Association of America recent lawsuit against Verizon Internet Services, are not the way to accomplish that goal, Armey said. Such lawsuits will drive customers away from Internet providers, he added.

Much of the three-day privacy conference was focused on how businesses could write strong privacy policies and comply with government regulations on data privacy and security.

During a panel discussion on third-party verification, Tony Gonchar, customer relationship manager and privacy officer for online travel site Expedia, recommended businesses get seals of approval from groups like TRUSTe or the Better Business Bureau. He also called on such groups dedicate 10 percent of their revenues toward educating the public about privacy issues.