DALLAS, TX: Privacy advocates and concerned citizens should be far more concerned about governments as potential abusers of privacy than the private sector because of government's unique powers, says a new Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) publication.
Author Jim Harper warns in "Why Government is a Threat to Privacy," that while most of the privacy debate has been focused on the private sector, the issue of privacy from government is far more critical.
"Governments can take and use personal information, knock down doors, audit finances, break up families and throw people in jail," writes Harper.
When it comes to privacy, the government and private sector operate in entirely different legal environments and have different incentives. Companies in the private sector are hemmed in by markets and law, and consumer dollars pressure companies toward privacy protection on the terms consumers want, writes Harper. But governments take information by force of law, and must be hemmed in by rules aimed at privacy because they lack the incentives to do so on their own.
Furthermore, writes Harper, government agencies make many demands for personal information, have notoriously lax security, and are constantly building, growing, and combining databases of personal information. "Government's demands for information and new uses of information are constant," he writes.
And if a citizen is concerned about how the US government can use their personal information, how much more should they be concerned about foreign governments' use of it?
"That is exactly what European governments, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and some US politicians push in their attempt to rid the world of ‘tax havens,'" writes Harper. "Free exchange among governments of tax, banking, credit card and other information on individuals throughout the world would be devastating for privacy and liberty."
"Between government and the private sector, government is the clearest threat to privacy," concludes Harper. While consumers can always turn away from businesses that do not satisfy their demands for privacy, the government has unique powers no business has: the ability to take information from people and use it in ways that are objectionable or harmful.
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas, Texas. Copies of "Why Government is a Threat to Privacy" are available at www.IPI.org. For media requests with IPI experts, please contact Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org.