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Data About Local
People on Computers
How private are the lives and activities of ’Rappahannock County residents? Not as private as they think they are. On the basis of testimony given recently before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, it appears that a wealth of personal information about focal people has been stored in the data banks of computers in Washington and elsewhere, ready for instantaneous inspection. According to one witness, Prof. Arthur Miller of the University of Michigan Law School, “Each time a citizen files a tax return, applies for credit or for life insurance, seeks Government benefits or interview for a public job, a dossier is opened under his name.” Included is such data as age, birthplace, schooling, income, property holdings, political and social affiliations, tax payments, military record, marital status, law violations and a host of other tidbits of information. On the computers of the Internal Revenue Service, for example, are details of the earnings and expenditures of approximately 1,900 residents' of Rappahannock County.
Although this is supposedly confidential information, it is being made available to state and local governments and may be “leaked” to others, it was testified.
In the files of the Social Security Administration are the records of some 950 local residents who are receiving retirement or disability benefits. In addition, the administration has the employment records of nearly everyone in the area who is in the labor force.
Another collector of data is the FBI. which has an estimated 2,200 fingerprints on file of men, women ai>d children living in Rappahannock County.
Included are prints of persons on public payrolls, of those who have been in military service, of people who have been arrested for felonies and of others who have voluntarily submitted their fingerprints for identification purposes. The surveys made periodically by the Census Bureau also produce much private information about people but this is only for statistical purposes and is kept confidential. The purpose of the Senate inquiry is to find a way to control the data banks and prevent the misuse of the information in them.
Confirmation April 18
At Trinity Church
The Right Reverend Samuel Chilton, D.D. will be at Trinity Episcopal Church, Washington, on Sunday, April 18 at 11 a.m. for Confirmation. There will be no 8 o’clock service or Sunday School. Following the service coffee and sandwiches will be served in the Parish Hall. The public is cordially invited to attend.
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