Briefs

FCW.com, Brian Robinson, Feb. 7, 2007

... The Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2007 (S. 495), introduced in a substantially similar form in 2005 and again last year, puts a heavy onus on government to ensure the commercial data it collects is protected, and to take what its sponsors called basic steps to ensure an individual�s personal information is secure.

...

The bill�s primary sponsors are Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), its ranking member. Other co-sponsors are Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The bill has already received broad approval. Officials at the Center for Democracy and Technology, for example, called it one of the stronger data breach proposals that Congress has made, and said they are particularly supportive of the provision that strengthens oversight of the government�s use of commercial databases to collect information about citizens through data mining.

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