Friday. December 18, 1970
THE NEW BERN MIRROR. NEW BERN, N. C.
In recent months, with each
new discovery about Federal
data banks and their collection,
storage, and use of information
about citizens, public concern
has grown about the serious
questions of individual privacy
and constitutional rights.
The Constitutional Rights
Subcommittee, of which I am
Chairman, has received
countless letters from
interested persons all over the
country urging that the
Subcommittee schedule
hearings to consider the impact
of these data progranrs upon
individual rights.
In early September, the
Subcommittee scheduled a new
series of hearings on this
subject for early October, but it
soon became apparent that the
pressures for action by
Congress on end-of-the-term
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legislation required
postponement of these
hearings. At the present time, it
is anticipated that these data
bank hearings will be held in
late Fbruary.
The purpose of the hearings if
fourfold; First, to learn what
Government date banks have
been developed; second, how
far they are already
computerized or automated:
third, what constitutional
rights, if any, are affected by
them; and, fourth, what overall
legislative controls, if any, are
required.
Record keeping is as old as
recorded history, and there is
nothing new in the fact that
governments and societies
engage in surveillance,
blacklisting, and subtle reprisal
for unpopular political or social
views. Men have always had to
contend with the memories of
other men. In this country,
however, we are blessed with a
Constitution which undertakes
to secure to all citizens certain
rights of privacy, and this
applies to the arbitrary use of
recordkeeping and information
power of government against
the individual.
In spite of these guarantees,
the advance of technology has
been quietly, but steadily
endowing officials with the
power which accompanies
computers and date banks and
scientific techniques of
managing information. The
computer has now given the
Government the power to take
note of anything, whether it be
right or wrong, relevant to any
purpose or not, and to retain it
forever. It is unfortunate, but
true, that this revolution is
coming about under outdated
laws and executive orders
governing the recordkeeping
and the concepts of privacy
which are relevant to another
era.
Consder these facts: The Civil
Service Commission maintains
a “Security file” of more than
two million cards in electrically
powered rotary cabinets. Its
larger “security investigations
index” contains more Uian 10
million cards relating to
personnel investigations made
by the Commission and other
agencies, TTie Department of
the Army and other military
departments have stored vast
amounts of personal data on
individuals which is said to be
relevant to possible civil
disturbances and subversion.
The Secret Service has created
its computerized data bank to
protect high Goverment
officials from harm and to
protect federal buildings from
possible damage. The Bureau of
Customs has installed its
control data processing
intelligence network which
contains records about suspects
entering the United States.
No one would deny that the
Government of such a populous
and complex society should not
avail itself of the efficiency
offered by computers and
scientific data management
techniques. Governmental
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MIRROR morsels
Moral education is impc^ible
without the habitual vision of
greatness.-Alfred North
Whitehead.
It is the greatest of all
mistakes to do nothing because
you can only do little.-Sydney
Smith.
Everybody’s heart is open,
you know, when they have
recently escaped from severe
pain, or are recovering the
blessings of health.-Jane
Auston.
agencies must, as Congress has
charged them, acquire, store,
and process economically the
information it obtains from
citizens for administrative
purposes to deal with a mobile
society and the misdeeds of
individuals who resort to
violence and who violate the
law.
All of this is to simply say that
we must update our laws to
keep in balance the need for
information and the use to
which it is put. This is the area
of concern as the Subcommittee
seeks to examine data bank
surveillance.
A wise man will make more
opportunities than he finds.-
Francis Bacon.
Criticism often takes from the
tree caterpillars and blossoms
together.-Jean Paul Richter.
Real glory springs from the
silent conquest of ourselves.-
Joseph Parrish Thompson.
. Charity is injurious unless it
helps the recipient to become
independent of it.-John D.
Rockefeller, Jr.
Often the test of courage is not
to die but to live.-Vittorio
Alfieri.
Reason is nothing but the
analysis of belief.-Franz
Schubert.
He that takes time to think
aqd consider will act more
wisely than he that acts hastily
and on impulse.-Charles
Simmons.
The louder he talked of his
honor, the faster we counted our
spoons.-Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Love makes everything
lovely; hate concentrates itself
on the one thing hated.-George
MacDonald.
Obedience to truth known is
the king’s highway to that which
is still beyond us.-Aeschulus.
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