{"id":83968,"date":"2013-10-11T08:26:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-11T07:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=8374db27bad59d493fcd928bf32b9c0a"},"modified":"2013-10-11T08:26:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-11T07:26:00","slug":"obamacare-compromises-privacy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/obamacare-compromises-privacy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Obamacare Compromises Privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\"><b>Obamacare Compromises Privacy<\/b><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">by Stephen Lendman<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The 1974 Privacy Act governs the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal information maintained by federal agencies.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It prohibits disclosing it without written consent, stating:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;No (federal) agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person, or to another agency, except pursuant to a written request by, or with the prior written consent of, the individual to whom the record pertains.&#8221; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Exceptions include:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">the Census Bureau and Labor Department for statistical purposes;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">&#8220;routine&#8221; internal federal agency usage;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">archives for a historical record;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">law enforcement;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">congressional investigations; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px;\">other administrative purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">All federal agencies must prevent unauthorized release of personal records.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">To protect privacy and other civil liberties when requesting information, they must cite the statutory or presidential executive order &#8220;authority which authorizes the solicitation of the information and whether disclosure of such information is mandatory or voluntary.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requires administration officials to insure Americans&#8217; personal records are adequately protected from misuse and security breaches.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Privacy rights no longer exist. Big Brother rules changed things. NSA operates its way. So do the CIA, FBI and other US spy agencies. &nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">They egregiously violate privacy. Their rules alone apply. Obamacare has its own. More on that below.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Days after launching insurance marketplaces, federal officials acknowledged serious online design and software flaws. On day one, most exchange web sites crashed.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Major changes are required. Greater server capacity is needed. Washington runs online marketplaces for 36 states. Fourteen others have their own systems. They&#8217;ve had mixed performance.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Overall, relatively few Americans so far enrolled. Most others trying failed. Washington won&#8217;t say how many succeeded. Obama urged patience. It&#8217;s wearing thin.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A Virginian resident said he tried a dozen or more times to log in. Web site errors prevented each attempt. A federal hotline representative couldn&#8217;t help.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">A system designed to determine eligibility for federal subsidies or Medicaid isn&#8217;t working properly. It&#8217;s rejecting some qualified households. It&#8217;s accepting others that don&#8217;t.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Considerable time and expense are needed to fix things. It remains to be seen how efforts progress. Obamacare&#8217;s inauspicious October 1 launch suggests more trouble ahead.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Much already exists in other ways. Previous articles discussed lots of rude awakenings enrollees can expect. Marketplaces offer a confusing array of plans.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Many leave consumers paying around 40% of costs out-of-pocket. They&#8217;ll do so after spending thousands of dollars on premiums. They&#8217;ll get much less than expected.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Obamacare rations it. Coverage afforded is full of holes. Underinsurance is the new normal. Potential consequences are financially and medically devastating.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Everyone must be covered. Anyone not is penalized. The IRS will automatically seize funds from personal bank accounts.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Millions unable to afford employer coverage are ineligible for federal aid.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Consumers will get all the healthcare they can pay for. Eligible low income households will get skimpy government help. Everyone&#8217;s privacy will be violated. Don&#8217;t expect Washington to explain.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Obamacare takes full advantage of the Privacy Act &#8220;routine use&#8221; exception. It permits personal information disclosure when used &#8220;for a purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which it is collected.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Invoking &#8220;routine use&#8221; lets Washington violate privacy rights. In January 2012, Obama proposed a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He urged Congress to pass appropriate legislation. He said &#8220;American consumers can&#8217;t wait any longer for clear rules of the road that ensure their personal information is safe online.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He said one thing. His policies are polar opposite. It bears repeating. He governs by diktat authority. He heads a domestic police state apparatus. He permits lawless NSA spying.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He lets FBI, CIA and other federal agencies operate extrajudicially. His kill list decides who lives or dies. He violates privacy rights egregiously.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">He&#8217;s beholden solely to wealth, power and privilege. He spurns popular interests. He governs lawlessly. He does so with impunity.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In June 2013, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report omitted mentioning how Obamacare breaches privacy. Failure to do so violates the public trust.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Enrollees must provide their name, street address, email address and password, Social Security number, private bank account information, employment details and more. Private medical history records will be maintained.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The ACLU said Obamacare violates sexual privacy rights. Information doctors obtain must be entered into an electronic database. Patient medical records should remain private.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Lawyer\/client consultations are confidential. Why should doctor\/patient ones be different?<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Data collected may be shared with law enforcement and other federal agencies. Doing so violates Fifth Amendment rights. They include the right to remain silent. They protect against self-incrimination.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The Fourth Amendment prohibits &#8220;unreasonable searches.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In 1890, future Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis and attorney Samuel D. Warren wrote a landmark article titled &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/faculty.uml.edu\/sgallagher\/harvard__law_review.htm\"><span style=\"color: #1255cc;\">The Right to Privacy<\/span><\/a>.&#8221; The Harvard Law Review published it.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">US jurist Harry Kalven called it the &#8220;most influential law review article of all.&#8221; In Kyllo v. United States (2001), concurring and dissenting Supreme Court justices cited it in their ruling.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Subsequent privacy laws stemmed from what Brandeis and Warren wrote. They said:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Political, social, and economic changes entail the recognition of new rights, and the common law, in its eternal youth, grows to meet the demands of society.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;It is our purpose to consider whether the existing law affords a principle which can properly be invoked to protect the privacy of the individual; and, if it does, what the nature and extent of such protection is.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Brandeis and Warren said privacy rights should protect businesses and persons. Individuals are entitled to have their &#8220;thoughts, sentiments, emotions,&#8221; diaries, letters and other personal information remain private.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Trust is breached when &#8220;facts relating to (a person&#8217;s) private life&#8221; are made public. Long before today&#8217;s technological advances they added:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;Now that modern devices afford abundant opportunities for the perpetration of such wrongs without any participation by the injured party, the protection granted by the law must be placed upon a broader foundation.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Throughout his Supreme Court tenure, Brandeis remained an uncompromising right to privacy advocate.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">In his famous Olmstead v. United States dissent (1928), he called the &#8220;right to be let alone&#8230;the most comprehensive of rights, and the most valued by civilized men.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Modern tort law includes four privacy category invasions:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">(1) physical or electronic intrusion into one&#8217;s private space;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">(2) disseminating personal information considered objectionable;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">(3) publishing or revealing facts placing individuals in a false light; and<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">(4) unauthorized use of a person&#8217;s name or likeness for ill-gotten gains or other purposes.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Personal privacy should be sacrosanct. No one should be allowed to intrude into the private space of others.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Although constitutional provisions don&#8217;t specifically mention the word &#8220;privacy,&#8221; legal limits prohibit violations.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The 9th Amendment forbids government from infringing on rights not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The Supreme Court recognized 14th Amendment due process privacy protections. It did so by protecting a married couple&#8217;s contraception rights (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965).<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It did by protecting abortion rights (Roe v. Wade, 1973). It did by upholding privacy rights of same sex couples (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003).<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Article 1 of California&#8217;s Constitution calls privacy an inalienable right. Other states have similar provisions.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Article 10 of Montana&#8217;s Constitution states:<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">&#8220;The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">The US Constitution has 27 amendments. A 28th is long overdue. It should unequivocally guarantee privacy. It should do it in unambiguous terms.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It should prohibit government, business and other outside parties or interests from violating personal privacy spaces.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It should impose heavy penalties for doing so. It should protect inalienable rights so egregiously violated today. It should end these practices once and for all.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">His new book is titled &#8220;Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.claritypress.com\/LendmanII.html<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.progressiveradionetwork.com\/the-progressive-news-hour<\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; min-height: 22px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px;\">http:\/\/www.dailycensored.com\/obamacare-compromises-privacy\/<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obamacare Compromises Privacyby Stephen LendmanThe 1974 Privacy Act governs the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal information maintained by federal agencies.It prohibits disclosing it without written consent, stating:&#8221;No (feder&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1217,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-83968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}