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Re: Fwd: Corporate Crime and CDT Funding on behalf of so-called medical privacy
Thanks (belatedly) for posting this, Russell. Who was it said, "Follow the
money." Great stuff.
For a good time, call the EFF about these folks. For a better time, call
the ACLU.
It might be hilarious to make some inquiries around Stanford... Maybe Rich
Graves can give us the poop.
Best, Clark
Probably time someone wrote an expose of industry and cryptocrats "hacking"
public policy groups. Wonder where one could PLAGIARIZE such tidbits? ;-)
(apologies -- "plagiarize" is an inside joke for the filterslugs ;-)
//--- forwarded letter ---------------------------------------
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 95 12:01:10 -0500
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Fwd: Corporate Crime and CDT Funding on behalf of so-called
medical privacy
> The following article appeared in the current issue of
> Corporate Crime Reporter (Volume 9, Number 44, November 20, 1995,
> page one). It is redisseminated on the Internet with the
> permission of CCR.
>
> SELF-PROCLAIMED "PUBLIC INTEREST" GROUP HEAVILY FUNDED BY
> COMPUTER, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, DATABANK CORPORATIONS THAT WOULD
> BENEFIT FROM "MEDICAL PRIVACY" LEGISLATION GROUP SUPPORTS --
> EQUIFAX, TRW, DUNN & BRADSTREET IN THE MIX
>
> The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), a self-
> proclaimed "public interest organization," is in fact heavily
> funded by large private computer, telecommunications, and
> databank corporations.
> Funders of CDT, a two-year old Washington, D.C.-based
> advocacy organization, include Dunn & Bradstreet Corp., Equifax
> Inc., and TRW Information Services, three large databank
> corporations that stand to benefit from federal legislation CDT
> actively helped shaped and is shepherding through Congress.
> This year, CDT has received $699,643 from more than 30 large
> corporations, including $100,000 from Microsoft, $75,000 from
> AT&T, $60,000 from Bell Atlantic, $50,000 from Apple Computer,
> $25,000 from IBM, $10,000 from TRW Information Services, $10,000
> from Dunn & Bradstreet, $5,000 from Direct Marketing Association,
> and $5,000 from Equifax Inc. (For a complete list of CDT's
> funders, see At A Glance, page 16)
> At a hearing before the Senate Labor and Human Resources
> Committee last week, CDT deputy director Janlori Goldman said
> that CDT "strongly supports" legislation, S. 1360, sponsored by
> Senators Robert Bennett (R-Utah) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont),
> because it represents "the most comprehensive and strong privacy
> bill the Congress has yet considered in this area."
> But opponents of the bill argue that the legislation is not
> a privacy statute at all, but instead is a vehicle that would
> legitimize the creation of large computerized databanks of
> personal medical information, thus benefitting those companies
> like TRW and Equifax that give financial support to CDT. The
> legislation would allow for broad, unauthorized searches of those
> databanks, opponents claim.
> In an interview, Goldman told Corporate Crime Reporter that
> all of CDT's corporate funding is earmarked for other projects
> and that none of the corporate funding is supporting her work on
> the medical privacy bill.
> "The corporate funding is not related at all, in any way
> shape or form to my work on this bill," Goldman said. "The reason
> we are doing this bill is that I've worked on privacy issues for
> a decade. The most important privacy issue to work on is the
> passage of the medical records privacy legislation. That is a
> very sincere issue for me."
> "None of the corporate support that CDT gets is related to
> my work on this bill," Goldman emphasized. "None. Zippo."
> CDT's executive director, Jerry Berman agreed. "We have no
> funding for the medical privacy project -- zero," Berman said.
> But critics of the CDT's position on the legislation were
> skeptical.
> "During the Senate hearing this week, Senator Bennett was
> angered at the suggestion that S. 1360 was an industry bill,"
> said Jamie Love of Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive
> Law. "He claimed that he had widely consulted with privacy groups
> and patient advocates. CDT's Janlori Goldman was the key person
> who decided who was in the loop, and who was not in the loop on
> this issue. Groups that were not receptive to the idea of massive
> database systems of personal medical records were excluded from
> deliberations."
> "To find out that CDT has been funded by companies such as
> Equifax, TRW, Dunn & Bradstreet, IBM and the telephone companies
> is remarkable, because these are among the groups who have the
> most at stake in legitimizing and preserving the current system
> of maintaining and managing medical records," Love said. "I think
> that Janlori Goldman should have mentioned in her Senate
> testimony that CDT was funded by corporations who have an
> interest in this issue."
> "If CDT were doing its job, TRW and Equifax wouldn't want to
> give it money," Love added.
> Harold Eist, president-elect of the American Psychiatric
> Association, said that "any datagathering and large computer
> company would clearly benefit from legislation that drives large
> amounts of individually identified data about American citizens
> into data banks without the knowledge and permission of those
> American citizens."
> "Selling that information would represent a gold mine for
> those companies," Eist said.
> "It is not surprising that an organization with a
> disingenuous name -- Center for Democracy & Technology -- would
> be supporting a bill with a disingenuous name -- The Medical
> Records Confidentiality Act," Eist said. "In fact, this bill
> represents an effort to give away the privacy of American
> citizens without their knowledge."
> "My understanding is that Janlori Goldman was involved in
> writing the bill," Eist said. "It seems to me that as a former
> civil libertarian, she should know very well that there are
> loopholes in that bill regarding protections to privacy that you
> could drive a Mack truck through."
> "Unless people can be assured that their privacy will be
> protected, there is little or no chance that they will reveal the
> kind of tormented and dark secrets that they have to reveal to
> recover from their illnesses," Eist said. "Confidentially is the
> sine qua non of medical treatment, and especially if it is
> psychiatric medical treatment."
> A driving force behind the effort to derail the
> Bennett/Leahy bill is Denise Nagel, a Boston physician who
> organized the Coalition for Patient Rights of New England "to
> restore confidentiality to the doctor-patient relationship."
> Nagel refused to comment on CDT's funding.
> At the Senate hearing last week, Nagel told the committee "I
> have no industry ties."
> Nagel charged that S. 1360 was written "to advance the
> interests of certain segments of the computer,
> telecommunications, data processing and health-care industries."
> "With this bill they would be able to careen full speed
> ahead to develop data networks that will give innumerable people
> access to our medical records legally and without our knowledge,"
> Nagel said.
> "I am convinced that S. 1360 is not at all primarily
> concerned with the confidentiality of medical records," Nagel
> told the committee. "It is just the opposite. It talks about
> informed consent, but then authorizes the creation of databases
> without patient knowledge or consent. It talks about individual
> rights, and then allows police broad authority to search
> databases directly instead of obtaining a specific record from
> the patient's doctor. It talks about civil and criminal
> sanctions, and then pre-empts all common law and most existing
> and future state statutes. It talks about ensuring personal
> privacy with respect to medical records, and then sets a ceiling
> rather than a floor on medical confidentiality."
>
> AT A GLANCE: CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY FUNDING, 1994-
> 1995
>
> American Advertising Federation 500.00
> America Online, Inc. 25,000.00
> Apple Computer Inc. 50,000.00
> AT&T 75,000.00
> Bell Atlantic 60,000.00
> Business Software Alliance 6,000.00
> Cellular Tellecomm Indust Assn 10,000.00
> CompuServ 30,000.00
> Delphi Internet Services Corp 10,000.00
> Direct Marketing Association 5,000.00
> Dunn & Bradstreet Corp 10,000.00
> EMA 5,000.00
> Equifax Inc. 5,000.00
> John Gilmore 2,500.00
> Hartford Foundation 153,000.00
> IBM 25,000.00
> Information Technology Industry 5,000.00
> Interactive Digital Software 5,000.00
> Lotus 6,250.00
> MARC 80,000.00
> MCI Telecommunications 15,000.00
> Microsoft 100,000.00
> National Cable Television Assn 15,000.00
> Netscape Communications Corp 5,000.00
> Newspaper Association of Am 5,000.00
> Nynex Government Affairs 25,000.00
> Pacific Telesis 25,000.00
> Prodigy Service Company 10,000.00
> Software Publishers Assn 10,000.00
> Time Warner Inc 5,000.00
> TRW Information Svcs 10,000.00
> US Telephone Association 10,000.00
> US West Inc 10,000.00
>
> Total Funding 814,020.00
>
> Received 1994 114,377.00
> Received 1995 699,643.00
>
> Total Funding 814,020.00
>
>
>
> Russell Mokhiber
> [email protected]
> voice: 202/429-6928
>
[big birdie follows]
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