Re: IRS to keep unreviewable secret dossiers on US citizens

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Perry E. Metzger wrote:

> xpat@vm1.spcs.umn.edu says:
> > Excerpts from : St Paul Pioneer Press, Jan 29, 1995
> > 
> > Here's the kicker: "Although agency officials concede that some of
> > the data collected will be inaccurate, taxpayers will not be allowed
> > to review or correct it"                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > So much for the FOIA.
> 
> The privacy act and FOIA make that more or less illegal -- if they are
> keeping information on you, with certain law enforcement related
> exceptions they have to let you see it.

The articles I've read on this new system ("Compliance 2000") make it
clear that the IRS will be buying data from non-governmental entities,
e.g., the direct marketing databases and the commercial credit
reporting agencies. This neatly skirts the FOIA, as the FOIA cannot be
used to force a private entity or corporation to reveal its own data
(which, as a libertarian, I am glad of....I wouldn't want folks
demanding to sift through my records, files, and dossiers).

This just extends the type of "subcontracting" to nominally private
entities that the intelligence community began many years ago. The
corporation, "Dossiers R Us," will be the "Air America" for our age.

--Tim May


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