Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Some critics fear having machine-readable information on driver's licenses will
aggravate problems with identity theft. Each state is required to share all this information
with every other state and the federal government. American Civil Liberties Union
lawyer Timothy Sparapani said, “We will have all this information in one electronic
format, in one linked file, and we're giving access to tens of thousands of state DMV
employees and federal agents” [80].
Proponents of the bill say such fears are unjustified. They suggest that the personal
information actually available on the new driver's license is relatively insignificant com-
pared with all the other personal information circulating around cyberspace [79].
The Department of Homeland Security pushed back the deadline for implementing
the new driver's licenses from 2008 to 2013. Most states did not meet the deadline. In
December 2012 the DHS announced that it would provide temporary deferments to
states that had not yet issued new driver's licenses meeting the criteria of the REAL ID
Act. As of April 18, 2013, a total of 19 states had come into compliance with the REAL
ID Act [81].
We now consider the information dissemination category of Solove's taxonomy. After
we survey three federal laws that restrict the dissemination of personal information that
organizations have collected, we discuss the Freedom of Information Act, designed to
promote open government by allowing news organizations and private citizens to access
records maintained by federal agencies. We also explore how information collected by
the government for one purpose—collecting tolls—is being used as evidence of people's
whereabouts in both criminal and civil cases.
The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) provides students 18 years of age
and older the right to review their educational records and to request changes to records
that contain erroneous information. Students also have the right to prevent information
in these records from being released without their permission, except under certain
circumstances. For students under the age of 18, these rights are held by their parents
or guardians. FERPA applies to all educational institutions that receive funds from the
US Department of Education.
In 1988 President Ronald Reagan nominated Judge Robert Bork to the US Supreme
Court (Figure 6.6). Bork was a noted conservative, and his nomination was controver-
sial. A Washington, DC, video store provided a list of Bork's video rental records to a
reporter for the
Washington City Paper
, which published the list. While the intention of
the paper was most likely to embarrass Bork, it also had the effect of prompting Congress
to pass the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988. According to this law, video providers
(including providers of online videos) cannot disclose rental records without the written
