A Better Way to Approach Privacy Policy in the United States: Establish a Non-Regulatory Privacy Protection Board

the degree of public concern as expressed in public opinion polls; * the growth of sincere and other privacy self-regulatory activities; e the development of public and private institutions dealing with aspects of privacy; * the number of lawsuits and federal and state investigations into violations of privacy; " the volume of media coverage of privacy; " the consequences to individuals from the use and misuse of personal information; * the ever-increasing amount of personal information maintained by third party record keepers; and * the vast capabilities of modern information technology, including the Internet, to collect, compile, maintain, and disseminate personal information.'For present purposes, it is sufficient to assert that nearly every institution in the modern world maintains personal data and that nearly every individual is the subject of data files maintained by those institutions.Nowhere is this more true than in the United States, where the collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal information is ubiquitous among private and governmental organizations.Where personal records exist, privacy issues necessarily follow, even if the issues are ignored at times.Record keepers and record subjects have-or should have-a shared interest in determining the rules governing the collection, maintenance, use, and disclosure of personal data.Both record keepers and record subjects share risks and responsibilities regarding the processing of personal data.A privacy agency would serve the interests of both record keepers and record subjects.1.The number of popular and scholarly writings that make these points is enormous.