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Slide 12 of 25
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Slide 12 of 25
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The emphasis in U.S. law, starting with the 4th amendment of the constitution, has been the protection of citizens from intrusive actions by the government. Much of our privacy concern today, however, relates to other individuals and corporations that gather information and surveil our activities.
The U.S. does not have an overall consumer protection law but instead a network of laws each applying to a particular sector or type of information. This makes it hard for the average person to know what their privacy rights are in a given situation. We have some protection for credit records which grew out of a history of erroneous information and mis-use of that data. There is also some protection for bank records. Of major concern today are the privacy issues relating to medical records. However, many other instances where personal data is being gathered by companies is not covered by any of these laws. The U.S. has generally chosen to allow industries to "self-regulate" rather than impose legal restrictions. Both the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission have some responsibility to determine if self-regulation is successful, but there is no agreed upon measure that can be applied to make that decision. |