December 19, 2008<\/p>\n
President-elect Obama:<\/p>\n
We congratulate you on your election as the 44th President of the United States, and we look forward to working with you on one of the most challenging issues facing the country today – the protection of privacy. In our rapidly changing world, we recognize the importance of new technology and new business models. At the same time, there are new risks to citizens and consumers that will need to be addressed.<\/p>\n
As you said during the campaign, “Dramatic increases in computing power, decreases in storage costs and huge flows of information that characterize the digital age bring enormous benefits, but also create risk of abuse. We need sensible safeguards that protect privacy in this dynamic new world.” You committed to “strengthen the privacy protections for the digital age and to harness the power of technology to hold government and business accountable for violations of personal privacy.”1<\/p>\n
There is a clear need to address the spiraling problems of identity theft, security breaches, and the commercialization of personal information that has left American consumers vulnerable to fraud and exploitation. We are heartened by your positions on these difficult challenges.<\/p>\n
We are also inspired by your commitment to change the politics of Washington and to select people for public office who are not captive to private interest, to close “the revolving door between government and industry” and to reverse the “privileged access to inside information-all of which have led to policies that favor the few against the public interest.”9<\/p>\n
There is an enormous opportunity to realize the benefits of new technology and to safeguard the values that make us free and sustain our democracy. We look forward to working with your administration and the leaders you select for the government agencies on these important challenges.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Lillie Coney
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)<\/p>\n
Gil Mileikowsky, MD
Alliance for Patient Safety<\/p>\n
Laila Al-Qatami
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee<\/p>\n
Mary Alice Baish
American Association of Law Libraries<\/p>\n
Lynne Bradley
American Library Association<\/p>\n
Tom DeWeese
American Policy Center<\/p>\n
Prudence S. Adler
Association of Research Libraries<\/p>\n
Mark D. Agrast
Center for American Progress Action Fund<\/p>\n
Chip Pitts
Bill of Rights Defense Committee<\/p>\n
Jeff Chester
Center for Digital Democracy<\/p>\n
J . Bradley Jansen
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights<\/p>\n
Doug Bandow
Citizen Outreach Project.<\/p>\n
Linda Sherry
Consumer Action<\/p>\n
Susan Grant
Consumer Federation of America<\/p>\n
Pamela Banks
Consumers Union<\/p>\n
Marcia Hofmann
Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/p>\n
Sue Udry
Defending Dissent Foundation<\/p>\n
Mike Stollenwerk
Fairfax County Privacy Council<\/p>\n
Mark Cohen
Government Accountability Project<\/p>\n
Jaimee Napp
Identity Theft Action Council of Nebraska<\/p>\n
David Blau
Libertarian Party of Massachusetts<\/p>\n
Michael D. Ostrolenk
Liberty Coalition<\/p>\n
James Landrith
The Multiracial Activist<\/p>\n
Dr. Deborah Peel
Patient Privacy Rights<\/p>\n
Melissa Ngo
Privacy Lives<\/p>\n
Remar Sutton
Privacy Rights Now Coalition<\/p>\n
Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1 Barack Obama, “Change We Can Believe In: Technology,” 2 Id.<\/p>\n 3 Id.<\/p>\n 4 Obama urges inquiry into passport snooping, CNN (March 21, 2008), 5 Obama on Constitutional Right to Privacy, http:\/\/epic.org\/redirect\/110708_Obama_CNN_DebatePrivacy.html<\/a> <\/p>\n 6 Senator Obama, sponsor, 109th Congress, S. 2494, the Protect Taxpayer Privacy Act, available at http:\/\/thomas.loc.gov\/cgi-bin\/bdquery\/z?d109:s.02494:<\/a> <\/p>\n 7 Id., note 1 supra<\/p>\n
http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20080222011931\/http:\/\/www.barackobama.com\/issues\/technology\/<\/a> <\/p>\n
http:\/\/us.cnn.com\/2008\/POLITICS\/03\/21\/obama.passport\/index.html#cnnSTCVideo<\/a> <\/p>\n