COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY NINETIETH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION PURSUANT TO S. RES. 25 77-577 MARCH 14 AND 15, 1967 [4.1] Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1967 CONTENTS STATEMENTS OF WITNESSES Bahmer, Dr. Robert H., Archivist of the United States, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration; accompanied by Harry R. Van Cleave, Jr., General Counsel, General Services Admin- DeFranco, Edward, executive assistant to director, New York State Identification and Intelligence System_--- Eckler, A. Ross, Director, Bureau of the Census; accompanied by Howard C. Grieves, Deputy Director, and Robert F. Drury, Assistant Director Kaysen, Dr. Carl, director Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Uni- 3 Zwick, Charles J., Assistant Director, Bureau of the Budget; accompanied by Raymond T. Bowman, Assistant Director for Statistical Standards EXHIBITS Report of the Task Force on the Storage of and Access to Government Statistics, Dr. Carl Kaysen, Chairman; to the Bureau of the Budget Ross, Mr. D. Reid, executive vice president, St. Louis Regional Industrial Letter from D. Reid Ross to Senator Long explaining the proposal to Federal Communications Commission's inquiry of November 9, 1966, and Memorandum for the Record concerning results of Subcommittee's ques- tionnaire to agencies and departments RE: amount, nature, and use of information in Government files---- Letter to Senator Long from Leo V. Bodine, Executive Vice President, National Association of Manufacturers, Washington, D.C., with accom- panying report by C. L. Hutchinson, Chairman of the NAM Computer Subcommittee RE: National Data Center_ Letter from Senator Long responding to Mr. Bodine's correspondence____ Letter from Senator Long to Chairman Rosel Hyde, Federal Communica- tions Commission, concerning the computer and the potential invasion Letter from A. Ross Eckler, Director, Bureau of the Census, to Senator Long Bibliography by Robert L. Chartrand, Information Sciences Specialist, Science Policy Research Division, Library of Congress' Legislative "Information Concerning the Proposed Federal Data Center", by Robert 149 Corcoran, Thomas F., "On the Confidential Status of Census Reports", (Staff Member, House Post Office and Civil Service Committee, Sub- committee on Census and Government Statistics). Karst, Kenneth L.; "The Files: Legal Controls Over the Accuracy and Accessibility of Stored Personal Data". Nixon, Julian; "Federal Data Centers Present and Proposed" (Council of Social Science Data Archives, New York, New York). "Privacy and Behavioral Research", Report prepared for the Office of Science and Technology, Executive Office of the President (not printed) - "Privacy and Behavioral Research", by Oscar M. Ruebhausen and Orville Rothman, S.; "Centralized Government Information Systems and Pri- "Time, Leisure and the Computer: The Crisis of Modern Technology' speech by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, at Howard University, Washington, D.C. (March 1, 1967). "To Preserve Privacy", editorial from New York Times, August 9, 1966__ "Computer Plan for Personal 'Dossiers' in Santa Clara Stirs Fears of Invasion of Privacy", news article in New York Times of August 1, 1966 "Computers Will Bring Problems Along with Their Many Benefits", news article by Stanley Penn in the Wall Street Journal of December 20, 1966. Letter from H. Taylor Buckner, Assistant Professor of Sociology, San Fran- cisco State College, to The Editor of The American Sociologist, concerning COMPUTER PRIVACY TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 1967 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE, OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in room 1318 New Senate Office Building, Senator Edward V. Long of Missouri (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Long of Missouri (presiding) and Thurmond. Also present: Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., Chief Counsel; Bernard J. Waters, Senator Dirksen's office, Minority Counsel; and Benny L. Kass, Assistant Counsel. Senator LONG. The subcommittee will be in order. This morning the Subcommittee on Administrative practice and Procedure resumes hearings on the role of the computer as a potential invasion of individual privacy. Last summer, we explored proposals to create a Federal Data Center-the so-called Data Banks-with Dr. Edgar Dunn, a consultant to the Bureau of the Budget. In my opening statement last year, I said that if these proposals for a Data Bank concern themselves only with Government interests, and if individual, private interests were ignored, we might be creating a form of Frankenstein monster. Since that hearing, considerable thought has been given, both in and out of government, to problems of privacy. Scholars, statisticians, and computer experts have met with responsible government officials in scores of meetings and panel discussions. It is probably safe to say now that if a Federal Data Center is ever created, safeguards for individual privacy will be built into the system. In fact, many electronic specialists believe that greater safeguards can be programed into computer systems than those presently existing in the Government file cabinet. Dr. Carl Kaysen, chairman of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Chairman of the President's Task Force on the Storage of and Access to Government Statistics, recently submitted his report on the Data Center to the Bureau of the Budget. In a precise and highly significant annex to this report, entitled "The Right to Privacy, Confidentiality and the National Data Center," Dr. Kaysen writes: In general, our Committee believes that the problem of the threat to privacy can be met best by Congressional action, which defines a general statutory standard governing the disclosure of information that is collected on individuals |