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Hearings

Congressional Hearing on Employment Verification

The House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on employment verification. Several hearings have be held by the committee on the proposal to create a mandatory national government employment eligibility system. The current private sector system is voluntary.

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Privacy Rulemaking

Coalition Calls for Transparency in Public Consumer Database

In comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, over 40 public interest organizations urged the Bureau to publish consumer complaint narratives. The Bureau currently publishes limited complaint information on financial products and services, including debt collection and credit reports. The Bureau is now considering a plan to provide consumer perspectives on experiences with the financial industry. The consumer groups support this effort and also recommend obtaining consumer consent and removing personally identifiable information before posting the complaints.

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Privacy Legislation

President Pushes Consumer Privacy Forward

The President announced that he will move forward the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, a model framework for federal consumer privacy legislation.

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Campaigns

Coalition Members Promote Consumer Privacy Protection

Fifteen Privacy Coalition members representing millions of consumers and Internet users, sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee urging Congress to do more to protect consumer information. "Consumers today face an unfair choice: either stay offline and ignore the benefits of new technology, or plug in and run extraordinary risks to privacy and security," they wrote. "It shouldn't be this way. Consumers are more concerned about the privacy threat from big business than from big government," the letter continues. The coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, National Consumers League, Privacy Activism, Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, U.S. PIRG, and World Privacy Forum, argues that current privacy laws are inadequate, and that industry self-regulation has failed, as evidenced by millions of records compromised in data breaches.

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Coalition Meetings

April 2016 Monthly Meeting

This month two top-level European officials joined the Privacy Coalition: Paul Nemitz, the Director for Fundamental rights and Union citizenship in the Directorate-General for Justice of the European Commission, and Giovanni Buttarelli, the European Data Protection Supervisor. Both joined the Privacy Coalition on separate days to discuss the Privacy Shield, surveillance, EU Reform, and privacy and civil liberties in the digital age.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12, 2001

THE PRIVACY COALITION ANNOUNCES NEW PRIVACY INITIATIVE
The Privacy Pledge Sets Standard for Privacy Proposals in Congress
WASHINGTON, DC—The Privacy Coalition, a nonpartisan coalition of consumer, civil liberties, educational, library, labor, and family-based groups, presented "The Privacy Pledge"—the standard for future protection of privacy. Privacy is the major social issue of the information society and the top technology issue in the 107th Congress.

Member groups of The Privacy Coalition include: the American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Center for Media Education, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Project on Technology, Consumers Union, Eagle Forum, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Junkbusters, Media Access Project, National Consumers League, NetAction, Privacy Foundation, Privacy International, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Privacy Times, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

The Privacy Coalition invites members of federal and state legislatures to sign the pledge and thus protect one of the most important rights of Americans. The provisions of the pledge outline the necessary steps for future steps to protect privacy.

The Privacy Pledge reads as follows:

Privacy is one of America's most fundamental values.

The Fourth Amendment states that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." In addition, the U.S. has adopted many laws protecting Americans from privacy invasive practices by both the public and private sectors.

Recognizing the need to protect this essential freedom, I, (insert Member's name), pledge to my constituents in (State and District) and to the American people that I will support a privacy framework to safeguard the rights of Americans in this information age.

This framework includes:

  1. the Fair Information Practices: the right to notice, consent, security, access, correction, use limitations, and redress when information is improperly used,
  2. independent enforcement and oversight,
  3. promotion of genuine Privacy Enhancing Technologies that limit the collection of personal information and legal restrictions on surveillance technologies such as those used for locational tracking, video surveillance, electronic profiling, and workplace monitoring, and
  4. a solid foundation of federal privacy safeguards that permit the private sector and states to implement supplementary protections as needed.

______________________
Signature

______________________
Date

The Privacy Pledge was publicly presented in the First Amendment Lounge of the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Monday, February 12, at 9:30 a.m.

CONTACT:

American Association of Law Libraries
http://www.aallnet.org/
(202) 662-9200

American Library Association
Washington Office
http://www.alawash.org/
(202) 628-8410

American Civil Liberties Union
http://www.aclu.org/
(202) 544-1681

Center for Media Education
http://www.cme.org/
(202) 331-7833

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
http://www.cpsr.org/
(650) 322-3778

Consumer Federation of America
http://www.consumerfed.org/
(202) 387-6121

Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org/
(202) 387-8030

Consumers Union
http://www.consumer.org/
(202) 462-6262

Eagle Forum
http://www.eagleforum.org/
(202) 544-0353

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.epic.org/
(202) 483-1140

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW)
http://www.uaw.org/
(202) 828-8500

Junkbusters
http://www.junkbusters.com/
(908) 753-7861

Media Access Project
http://www.mediaaccess.org/
(202) 232-4300

National Consumers League
http://www.nclnet.org/
(202) 835-3323

NetAction
http://www.netaction.org/
(415) 775-8674

Privacy Foundation
http://www.privacyfoundation.org/
(303) 871-4971

Privacy International
http://www.privacyinternational.org/

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
http://www.privacyrights.org/
(619) 298-3396

Privacy Times
http://www.privacytimes.com/
(202) 829-3660

U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
http://www.pirg.org/
(202) 546-9707