It’s Time To Enact A Comprehensive Privacy Bill Of Rights
It seems these days that anybody is entitled to a piece of each of us without permission or compensation.
Over the past decade, our theoretical zones of privacy have been nibbled away by the media, credit and medical reporting, the Internet, telemarketing and the Internal Revenue Service, among others.
At the outer limits of this spectrum, celebrities and public figures deal with paparazzi who photograph private moments for financial gain. The more private the moment, the more money these free-lance photographers demand from tabloids and mainstream publications that expect to sell more copies. Even the suddenly famous or infamous, along with their families and friends, may have their privacy invaded simply because a person participated in a newsworthy event.
If the First Amendment is a weapon against tyranny, the paparazzi and tabloids use it more as a club to invade privacy and potentially destroy a person’s reputation internationally in a sound bite.
Celebrities assaulted with cameras endure the most visible invasions, but on a daily basis, we all experience intrusions, usually for monetary gain by some entity, without consent, compensation or, often, our knowledge.
Credit reporting and medical information collections are two examples of billion-dollar industries that have evolved to purvey intimate information about all of us. If that isn’t disturbing enough, we usually are required to pay to review our personal files for accuracy.
Why aren’t these companies compensating us for the privilege of accessing private credit and medical data? After all, they couldn’t exist without us. Perhaps we should all jump on the greed wagon and demand compensation for every data request.
That’s assuming the information is accurate. When I requested my credit reports, I found credit card accounts I either had never opened or had closed years earlier, a former address where I had never lived, and under current employment, a job I had left nine years earlier.
Subsequent employment wasn’t ever listed. One credit card account that I had opened and closed included my husband, who had never opened an account with that company.
When I called to correct these inaccuracies, I was treated to 20 minutes of holding, indifference and even hostility. I can only imagine what might be lurking in my medical file, but I refuse to pay anyone to access it.
Consider the pile of catalogs that seem to deluge everyone these days and the telemarketers who call during dinner.
I learned recently that I had to call catalog companies to put my name on “do not rent” lists and write the Direct Marketing Association to get off telemarketing lists. Feeling like a widget, I still believe my consent should have been sought before renting my name and address.
While opting out of these lists that have become big business for credit agencies, telemarketers, mail order companies and others, I learned that names sell for approximately 10 cents apiece. Requests for names usually are based on purchases within the previous six to 12 months, and some buyers ask for lists of customers with sales above $50. Information is not just power; it’s money.
Meanwhile on the Internet, names, addresses, telephone numbers and other sundries can be obtained while some web sites plant a “cookie” in your browser. That’s to monitor your browsing habits in order to market to you. It seems obvious that sending e-mail can also mean personal exposure.
Around Spokane, some store clerks are asking for ZIP codes or telephone numbers at checkout. Even more databases are being hatched to analyze consumer buying habits.
We must all demand accountability for our personal information. Since our credit reports, medical histories, Social Security numbers, buying habits, addresses and telephone numbers are being bought and sold daily, we at least deserve free copies of such information whenever we want to review, correct or provide consent. A percentage of profits also sounds good, but I would trade that for accuracy.
A recent study indicated about half of nearly 190 million credit files contained errors. If I were a merchant relying on credit information, I would demand all credit histories be reviewed by subject individuals. I never asked anyone to create a credit or medical profile on me to sell to strangers, and I refuse to subsidize information gatherers at $8 a report to validate their data.
A free report upon denial of credit, insurance or after identity theft is too late. The ox is already in the ditch.
Given the incursions into our private lives, a Privacy Bill of Rights seems overdue. Law-abiding citizens should be able to go home, shut the door and be left alone without concerns about intrusion, misrepresentation or exploitation. A simple “no” to unwanted attention should suffice.
xxxx