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Jingulat PRESIDENT ARTICLES AND PUBLICATIONS [From the (Philadelphia) Evening Bulletin, June 26, 1974] CURB THE COMPUTERS-DATAMANIA AND PRIVACY Americans today face an insidious threat to their privacy, one that is growing steadily, almost unnoticed, in the profusion of government and private data banks. The so-called datamania with which government and private industry compile records on millions of people has reached a point of complexity and unmanageability that should frighten even the most complacent. A recent report of the Senate judiciary Committee shows that 858 federal data banks are operated by 54 government agencies. Some of these collect "blacklist" information, such as individual protests in civil disobedience, riots and so on. Some other figures: The Defense Department has dossiers on approximately 1.6 million persons in its industrial security files; the Justice Department maintains a civil disturbance file with 22,000 names and another with 250,000 names in the organized crime section; the National Highway Safety Bureau, 3,300,000 names; the Secret Service, 69,000 persons considered potentially dangerous, etc., etc. The report estimates that the total of records in Federal Government files exceeds one billion, at least five for every living American. And after the Government comes the private data banks. The General Services Administration is now seeking a $100 million data system that could link many of the existing government systems, giving thousands of government employes access to information on millions of people at the drop of a switch. The potential for abuse in such a system is obvious. Data banks are a permanent feature of modern society. All presumably originate in legitimate and worthwhile purposes, a fact which has tended to obscure the potential threat involved. Most do not permit access by individuals on whom the data is being kept to check for the relevancy, accuracy or timeliness of the information. While the files remain closed to individuals, the information contained on them is easily and regularly traded between government agencies. An individual's habits, his weaknesses, his strengths, his credit worthiness are recorded, often without his knowledge. What is needed are stringent controls and safeguards against the abuse by data banks, including the right of access by individuals and the chance to review and correct information. The growing complexity and diversity of collection systems also demand the need for simplified procedures and perhaps could justify a single identifying number, such as Social Security, for each individual. Protection against data theft and electronic tapping are essential. The era of "Big Brother" is upon us. The task now is to have protective legislation that preserves individual privacy and controls the proliferation of new banks. [Editorial from the Washington Post, July 19, 1974] CONTROLLING THE DATA BANKS Congressional concern about preserving civil liberties has been, over the years, a sometimes thing, so many people will be surprised if the current surge of legislative interest in protecting individual privacy actually produces much legislation. There are growing indications, however, that this year Congress might really follow through on at least one major privacy issue by enacting a measure to regulate data banks and protect citizens against the improper or undisclosed collection and use of personal information by the government. The need for controls has been amply documented. After four years of work, Sen. Sam J. Ervin's Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights has just released a landmark study which itemizes 858 federal data banks containing over 1.2 billion records on identifiable individuals. Over 86 per cent of these files are computerized. Various data banks hold information on citizens' employment records, medical problems, driving habits, criminal histories, financial dealings, military service and other sensitive subjects. At least 29 files concentrate on derogatory information. In more than 42 percent of the cases, citizens are not notified that such records about them are being kept. And only 16 per cent of all these data banks have been expressly authorized by law. All this is doubly awesome because the study is incomplete. It does not include the White House "enemies lists" or the records maintained by some agencies which refused to cooperate. Clearly some basic rules need to be set before the government's penchant for collecting information grows any further out of hand. Last year an HEW advisory committee proposed several fundamental principles: that there should be no files whose existence is undisclosed; that citizens should be able to review and correct almost all records about themselves; that information gathered for one purpose should not be used for another without the subject's consent; and that extensive efforts should be made to protect the security and confidentiality of all files. These principles have been incorporated in the Koch-Goldwater bill in the House and in Senate measures sponsored by Sen. Ervin and several colleagues. On both sides of the Capitol, useful hearings have already been held, The legislative efforts have received a strong assist from Vice President Ford, who pushed the Office of Management and Budget to submit some specific recommendations to the Hill. For all this progress, however, the hard work is just beginning. Major disagreements have surfaced about the way that basic policies should be applied to governmental files as different as, for instance, the FBI's investigative dossiers and the masses of inactive records in the National Archives. Agencies have already started lobbying for exemptions for national security files, personnel records, census data and other categories. Indeed, some modifications will be required. For example, notifying the subjects of all files would be self-defeating for law enforcement agencies; for the Archives it would be impossible. But Congress should resist the pressures to write such broad, permanent exemptions into a law. The prudent course would be to authorize an oversight board to make exemptions in accord with strict guidelines and with ample opportunity for public comments before any data-collecting is allowed to proceed in secrecy. Another major issue is how ambitious legislation should be. Some bills would reach not only federal files, but also state, local and private data banks. Ultimately those files should also be subject to controls, since citizens can be hurt just as badly by the misuse of private records as by federal mistakes. Yet Congress may not know enough about the multitude of nonfederal files to deal intelligently with them all at once. The difficulties encountered in trying to regulate credit reporting and limit the traffic in arrest records suggest that a careful, step-by-step approach is best outside the federal domains. By reforming the policies for federal agencies and federal aid recipients, this Congress can set a strong example for the states and give citizens far more assurance that they won't be hurt by information lurking somewhere in a data bank. [From the New York Times, July 17, 1974] NEW DISCREPANCIES FOUND IN CONTROLLER'S ACCOUNTS FUND TOTALS DIFFER A second audit of the City Controller's office by an outside public accounting concern has uncovered a discrepancy of more than $30-million between city funds deposited with major banks and the Controller's records of those funds. The audit, performed by Clarence Raines & Co., deals with the citys' general treasury funds. It is separate from an earlier audit, released Sunday, by S. D. Leidesdorf & Co., which found $5.4-million in negotiable securities unaccounted for. They were supposed to have been in a city vault. The Raines' audit, which is still in draft form and approaching final form, is based upon a check of the Controller's general ledger as compared with bank 37-583 - 74 pt. 2 44 records as of Dec. 31-the last day that Abraham D. Beame now Mayor, served as Controller. If the bank records, as opposed to the Controller's records, are correct, the city has in excess of $30-million more on deposit than it thought it had. The total or deposit, according to the banks, is about $450-million. Like the earlier audit, the Rainess one was highly critical of security procedures in the Controller's office-this time from the point of view of lax control over check-signing machines employing automatic signature plates. But unlike the earlier audit, this one appeared to emphasize heavily the likelihood of "bookkeeping" errors to account for the discrepancy, as opposed to fraud, theft or embezzlement. Among other developments yesterday were the following: The Mayor and Controller Harrison J. Goldin announced the establishment of a "task force" under Commissioner of investigation Nicholas Scop- during recent years" in the Controller's records on securities in the vault. The Mayor, who was reported ill with viral bronchitis and remained at Gracie Mansion, did not respond publicly to the disclosure by Mr. Goldin that an audit conducted by Mr. Beame's office found $3.95-million in discrepancies in the securities count as of Dec. 31, 1971. Yet another audit-the fourth-that was critical of the City Controller's office came to light. This one was performed by State Controller Arthur Levitt in late 1971 and it called for "improving procedures and internal controls" within the office's division of pensions. A DIFFERENT PICTURE Taken as a whole, all of the audits paint a picture of loose accountability, lax security, and financial management with adequate internal controls-all of which conflicts with the image of Mr. Beame, who campaigned for Mayor on a record of administrative and fiscal expertise. Both of the audits performed by the outside public accounting firms were commissioned by Mr. Goldin on March 25 as a means, he said recently, of ascertaining the "status" of the $10-billion in assets that he "inherited" Jan. 1. The first audit, by Leidesdorf, caused a feud of press releases between Mr. Goldin and Mr. Beame, with each implying that perhaps the blame for the unaccountable securities-which were deposits by contractors to guarantee performance-occurred during the other's administration. The Mayor was reported to be angry that the Controller released the report without first attempting to "reconcile" the discrepancy and pin down the possibility of mistaken but accidental entries in the ledgers. Mr. Beame released a statement pointing out that the physical count of the securities in the vault had been taken on March 31-a date that would include three months of the new Controller's tenure. However, the second outside audit, the Rainess audit verifying general city treasury funds, was based upon a retrospective check of the records of the Controller and the banks the day before Mr. Goldin assumed office. The general treasury funds, amounting to approximately $1.5-billion, are simply the sum-total of revenue on hand from all sources, such as taxes, Federal and state aid, and proceeds of bonds and note sale. DEPOSIT PLAN EXPLAINED A certain amount is on deposit at any given moment with major banks under what is known as the "pool and satellite" system, an investment method designed to increase interest earnings. The six "pool" banks are: Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, Chemical, First National City, Manufacturers Hanover and the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company. The discrepancy of more than $30-million was arrived at by studying the records of the "pool" banks with those of the Controller's general ledger. The bank records are apparently more convincing. "Anyone reading the audit would have the right to assume that the city does in fact have more cash than it thought it had," commented one city official, who said that his name not be used. An additional sum of cash on hand close to $30-million, could have been significant during the recent budget negotiations. It might have meant, some political observers noted, that there was no necessity for imposing the auto use tax, which is expected to bring in $22-million or the fee on off-track betting. which is scheduled to bring in $30-million. PROCEDURES SCORED Critical of the Controller's bookkeeping system, the Raines' audit highlights what it calls "the absence for many years of bank reconciliation procedures." The "task force" announced by the Mayor and the Controller to look into the securities will draw upon personnel from the city's Department of Investigation, the Manhattan District Attorney's office, and the Police Department's bond and forgery squad. Its primary objective is to determine whether the discrepancies were "due to faulty bookkeeping procedures or theft." Interviewed in his office yesterday as he was about to begin the investigation, Mr. Scoppetta said that he had "an open mind" on the matter, but tended initially to suspect faulty bookkeeping because of the "sheer monumental size" of the securities unaccounted for. [From the Washington Post, July 6, 1974] POLICE COMPUTER INFORMATION USE INCREASES Installed six years ago at a cost of more than $6 million, a high speed crime information computer employed by Washington's metropolitan police is increasingly being used in the pursuit of suspects and stolen goods. Enthusiasm for the computer system is concentrated in the city, and some suburban officials rarely rely on it, using it only when their own systems fail. Named WALES, the "Washington Area Law Enforcement Systems," the computerized data bank was designed to provide city and suburban policemen with current information on wanted persons, stolen property, guns, auto registrations, parking violations and traffic warrants. For example, if a policeman in Prince Georges' County stopped a car from Washington, by giving either the license or registration number to WALES, in seconds the officer could find out to whom the car belonged, whether it was stolen, any outstanding traffic violations and whether the driver was wanted for a crime by local police or the FBI. The financing of the $270,550 WALES design project began with a $30,000 grant to the city by the now defunct Urban Renewal Administration. Then more than $287,000 in federal law enforcement assistance funds was given to the Council of Governments to get the program underway. Since 1968, the metropolitan police budget has allotted over $1 million a year to finance the WALES system. WALES involves both police and civilians in compiling information from the courts, the police department's data processing division, the department of motor vehicles, and other city agencies. The main WALES computer is located in the basement of police headquarters at 300 Indiana Ave. N.W. When the program started it was connected to 50 terminals in the Washington area: located in each city police district substation, the police headquarters of every suburban jurisdiction in the metropolitan area, U.S. Park Police headquarters, the Secret Service, the Armed Forces Police, Dulles International Airport and National Airport. WALES is also tied to the FBI's central computer system housed in Washington, the National Crime Information Center. The data bank that allows immediate checks on crimes and suspects across the country. Despite the fanfare that accompanied the debut of WALES as the most sophisticated police computer network in the world, it became the object of criticism from suburban police departments. At that time, complaints about WALES fell mainly into four categories: Suburban police departments were reluctant to check vehicle records through WALES, fearing out-of-date information might lead to the arrest of innocent drivers. Although suburban police stations had WALES computers, suburban policemen had to hand-carry punch cards to Washington police headquarters to give WALES information. WALES computers had a reputation for long shutdown times, or periods of time when the computer was not working. Maryland and Virginia got their own computer systems that performed many WALES tasks. Since 1968 the number of WALES terminals used by law enforcement agencies has increased from 50 to 100 in the metropolitan area. The cause of this increase |