Saturday, May 24, 2008

Where Oh Where Is Liberal Outrage About Privacy Now?

You know all the criticisms (some justified, some not) that privacy advocates on the left have leveled at various anti-terrorism measures undertaken by the Bush Administration?  Well, it seems that commitment to privacy changes a bit when it comes to issues outside of the national security context.  From a post on Openmarket, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's blog:

Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

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