, Washington Post 2003-04-16
The former privacy officer of Internet advertising giant DoubleClick
will be the Department of Homeland Security's first privacy czar, Bushadministration officials said.
The administration will appoint Nuala O'Connor Kelly to the privacy post, where
she would be responsible for vetting proposals or programs that involve collecting and using U.S. citizens' personal information. O'Connor Kelly currently serves as a Commerce Department attorney.
O'Connor Kelly, 34, would be responsible for vetting proposals or programs that
involve collecting and using U.S. citizens' personal information. She will report to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
The privacy rights community generally views O'Connor Kelly as a consensus
builder, but it is too soon to say how much influence she will have in protecting Americans' privacy rights, said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
"One of the things we liked (about her job) at DoubleClick was that she worked
hard to build relationships with the privacy community and to vet their new
policies with these groups," Schwartz said. "There is still some question as to
what level of access will she have, and whether she will be able to speak her mind internally and publicly on privacy issues or will she simply be giving the agency line on everything."
O'Connor Kelly is well acquainted with the often bitter debate over balancing
privacy rights with other interests. She joined DoubleClick in February 2000 after the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into complaints that the company was improperly storing and sharing private user data. DoubleClick also was embroiled in similar investigations by 12 state attorneys general and several class-action lawsuits.
DoubleClick settled most of those lawsuits, and created a division specializing in privacy compliance, which O'Connor Kelly ran.
The federal government has fronted similar accusations from the privacy rights
community that it is misusing private and personal data. Privacy groups have assailed the Bush administration of late over failing to solicit public comment on several proposed programs to collect information on Americans in the name of preventing terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
The "Total Information Awareness" program would have created a database of
consumer financial transactions combined with other publicly available data.
Congress said it will suspend funding for the Defense Department project unless
the administration can demonstrate that it will not violate constitutional privacy rights The White House's report is due next month.
Another government program that O'Connor Kelly probably will have to defend is
CAPPS II, said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the group that filed the DoubleClick complaint with the FTC. CAPPS II is a Transportation Security Administration plan to create a vast electronic passenger-screening network to assess the background and potential threat of anyone who makes an airline reservation.
