October 10, 2004 | Why Privacy Laws and Advocates Matter

For those folks out there who think privacy advocates exist only to yell that the sky is falling (for one, let me give Timothy Noah of Slate a shout out for harboring this sentiment), here's two great pieces of investigative work by Seth Rosenfeld of the San Francisco Chronicle to remind them why privacy laws exist.

Rosenfeld fought the FBI using the Freedom of Information Act to dig up the history of J. Edgar Hoover's illegal and un-American jihad against Free Speech Movement leader Mario Salvio.

Here's the short one and here's the long version.

And if those stories aren't enough to convince you of the necessity of the Privacy Act and strong Congressional oversight of the Justice Department, let me point you to an oldie but goodie.

Here's the 1976 Church report, which detailed the abuses of the FBI and the CIA in the age of anti-communism.

In part, the report found:

We have seen segments of our Government, in their attitudes and action, adopt tactics unworthy of a democracy, and occasionally reminiscent of the tactics of totalitarian regimes. We have seen a consistent pattern in which programs initiated with limited goals, such as preventing criminal violence or identifying foreign spies, were expanded to what witnesses characterized as "vacuum cleaners"," sweeping in information about lawful activities of American citizens.

Posted by Ryan Singel at October 10, 2004 10:46 PM