They Still Don’t Care

Proving that the US government is no more effective than the Iraqi government: Government agencies lacking ID protections

WASHINGTON – Nearly two years after an embarrassing flap in which veterans’ personal information was put at risk of identity theft, federal agencies are still not doing all they can to prevent further lapses, investigators have found.

Most of the two dozen federal agencies examined by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, have not implemented five federal recommendations aimed at protecting personal information. Only two agencies — the Treasury and Transportation departments — met each of those recommendations while two others — the Small Business Administration and the National Science Foundation — met none of them.

The other 18 agencies met the recommendations to varying degrees.

I bring this up because I was polled last night [I’m one of the few people left in the world with a land line telephone] and one of the questions was: “who is most responsible for your privacy?” They were polling the answers “yourself, the government, private industry, or another group” -wrong question and wrong choices.

The question should have been: “Who is most responsible for your loss of privacy?”

I was one of the veterans whose personal information was on the lost laptop, and there was nothing I could do about it. I can’t stop banks from selling my financial data, even though I specifically tell them I don’t want it released. I keep checking the boxes and signing the statements to tell everyone I deal with that I don’t want any information released, and the junk mail I receive makes it obvious that my views are irrelevant. I cannot be personally responsible for my privacy if I have no way of punishing the people to violate my wishes.

If I had the unhindered right to use a Taser on the CEO of any corporations that acted against my wishes, then I might feel that I had some control over my privacy, but, as it stands now, they are required to ask, but aren’t really punished when they don’t follow my wishes.