Obama Administration earning mixed grades for privacy

by Steve Ragan - Sep 17 2009, 20:30

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy research and advocacy organization focusing on privacy and civil liberties issues, published a report card grading the Obama Administration's performance privacy issues. Interestingly, while the EPIC grades were mixed, a public poll rated Obama's performance with an F across the board.

The privacy initiatives measured, consumer and medical privacy, civil liberties, and cybersecurity, earned anywhere from an incomplete to a high of A- and a low of C+. While the public poll rated the administration with a solid F, in all counts, there could be several reasons for the public response, each of them purely political in nature.

Starting with consumer privacy, the EPIC listed it as incomplete because of expected announcements to the FTC earlier this month. Since the Obama Administration had not yet named the two new FTC commissioners at the time the grades were released, the EPIC lift this category alone with a note that, "...we remain concerned about the absence of support for consumer privacy legislation."

The public however, took a different look at consumer privacy, as 65-percent of those who took the EPIC online poll rated the administration with an F when it comes to dealing with things such as the Do-Not-Call registry, and deceptive business practices.

However, the proposals that would make government information available to the private sector for advertising and marketing, and the fact that no new consumer privacy initiatives legislation has been introduced, might be a solid reason for the consumer grade, however no clear reasoning for the F ranking was given.

Medical privacy earned an A- from the EPIC, who gives the administration "full credit" for creating important privacy safeguards, citing the language in the HI-TECH Act as being responsible for making it "one of the best privacy laws in years."

Civil liberties earned an EPIC grade of C+, despite a noted amount of progress in some areas. "We note progress with REAL ID and E-Verify, as well as open government and judicial appointments, but worry about the administration's performance on the renewal of the Patriot Act," the EPIC noted. However, when it came to the public poll, 83-percent gave civil liberties an F, but again, there are no clear explanations for the grade.

When it came to cyber security, overall the Obama Administration earned a solid B from the EPIC, mostly for President Obama's "commendable" commitment "...to safeguard privacy and network communications in the difficult area of cybersecurity."

Yet at the same time the EPIC notes, "But a battle looms over efforts by Congress to extend the government's control of the Internet. The President should have named a point person on cybersecurity to represent his views in that coming debate."

The report card is interesting, but what would have made the data stronger would have been the inclusion of why the public picked F as a grade the majority of the time. Chime in below, what would you give the Obama Administration as a grade in the listed privacy issues? In addition, why would you give that grade?

You can learn more about the EPIC by visiting them at http://epic.org/

 

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