Obama and his open government, would stop the invasion of our privacy by government agencies, would stop all the illegal activities Bush was doing .... and I guess he figured he would start his own - violations of privacy. On VERY FEW issues would I agree with the ACLU, but here it is in black and white - since 2000, the federal government HAS NOT collected cookies, but they will NOW start under Obama.
Government Proposes Massive Shift In Online Privacy Policy (8/10/2009)
Changes Would Pose Serious Threat To Americans’ Personal Information, Says ACLU
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union submitted comments today to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) opposing its recent proposal to reverse current federal policy and allow the use of web tracking technologies, like cookies, on federal government websites. Cookies can be used to track an Internet user’s every click and are often linked across multiple websites; they frequently identify particular people.
Since 2000, it has been the policy of the federal government not to use such technology. But the OMB is now seeking to change that policy and is considering the use of cookies for tracking web visitors across multiple sessions and storing their unique preferences and surfing habits. Though this is a major shift in policy, the announcement of this program consists of only a single page from the federal register that contains almost no detail.
“This is a sea change in government privacy policy,” said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “Without explaining this reversal of policy, the OMB is seeking to allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website. Until the OMB answers the multitude of questions surrounding this policy shift, we will continue to raise our strenuous objections.”
[to read the rest of the article, click on the title link.]
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