[CTRL] ACLU - Defend Your Data: What They Do Know Can Hurt You!

[Peter Vit]

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/

Title: ACLU - Defend Your Data: What They Do Know Can Hurt You!

			ACLU Calls for Hearings on Government Databases WASHINGTON -- Following revelations that the U.S. Secret Service funded a private company's efforts to develop a national database of driver's license photographs, the American Civil Liberties Union today called on the government to protect -- not prostitute -- Americans' privacy. "The biggest 'identity crime' taking place right now is the government masquerading as our privacy protectors," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office. (more) Take Action Now - send your legislators a free fax! Help Spread the Word! Add Our Icon To Your Site! or Send a Postcard to Friends and Colleagues				Your right to privacy and that of all citizens is under unprecedented assault ... . . . from wholesale attacks from overly zealous law enforcement officials determined to have access to telephone conversation, e-mail or other electronic communication you transmit and . . . . . . from private sector interests that want access to intimate information about you, including your medical records, either for commercial purposes, or to challenge your insurance eligibility or employment suitability. For the past several years the ACLU has been defending our most fundamental right to privacy. But, if we are to succeed in stopping the assault on our privacy rights, we need the involvement of ordinary citizens. That is why the ACLU has launched our Defend Your Data Campaign. This special web-based campaign on privacy rights is designed to alert citizens to the fact that the government and the private sector are in the process of carrying out the most frightening and pervasive invasion of personal privacy in our nation's history. And what they do know, can indeed hurt you. Consider the following examples: In Maryland, a banker accessed medical records to find people diagnosed with cancer. Once he identified them, the bank called in their loans. According to a recent University of Illinois survey, 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies check medical records before they hire or promote. A 1997 survey by the American Management Association found that as many as 10 percent of 6,000 companies used genetic testing for employment purposes. And the Council for Responsible Genetics, an advocacy group in Massachusetts, has documented hundreds of cases in which healthy people have been denied insurance or a job based on genetic "predictions." So please take a moment to explore this site by following the links to the left and below and join us in our battle to protect our right to privacy by: completing the ACLU's privacy survey; and joining the ACLU today Your participation in this important campaign will help put us firmly on the road to taking back our right to privacy.