[LINK] VP Gore policy speech on privacy

[Jan Whitaker]

In http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/08/campaign.wrap/index.html

Gore calls for 'electronic bill of rights'

                   The vice president on Thursday visited a police
                   academy and crime lab in Whittier, California to discuss
                   legislation designed to protect personal privacy and
                   guard against "identity theft."

                                             "I will make it a
                                             national priority to
                                             stop this kind of
                                             traffic in personal
                                             data ... let's put the
                                             'security' back in
                                             Social Security,"
                                             Gore told a
                                             gathering of law
                                             enforcement
                                             officers on the
                                             grounds of the
                                             Sheriff's Training
                   Academy.

                   Gore said he would sign Social Security legislation
                   introduced Thursday in both congressional chambers by
                   Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), and Rep. Ed
                   Markey (D-Massachusetts). The measures would make
                   it a federal crime to buy or sell individual Social Security
                   numbers.

                   The vice president was joined onstage at the event by
                   Tim Remsburg, whose daughter was killed last year by
                   a man who bought her Social Security number for $45
                   from an Internet site and then stalked her.

                   Gore campaign aides said that the Social Security
                   Administration's hotline received 30,000 complaints of
                   Social Security number misuse in 1999 alone.

                   With the number, criminals also can assume an innocent
                   person's identity and gain credit in their name, the vice
                   president said.

                   Gore cited estimates that 500,000 people will be victims
                   of identity theft in 2000 as evidence that protective
                   privacy legislation was necessary.

                   "We need an electronic bill of rights, one that recognizes
                   that the right to privacy is a basic American right in the
                   information age, as in any age. In fact, it's more
                   important now than it's been in the past, because the
                   damage they (criminals) can do by violating your
                   personal privacy is greater now."

                   Gore also highlighted his support for other privacy
                   measures, including legislation to ensure that medical
                   records are always kept private, and prohibit the use of
                   genetic information for non-medical reasons.

                   "Together, we have to send a clear message to all our
                   people -- no matter how our technology grows and
                   changes, your fundamental right to privacy is something
                   that must never change," Gore said.