[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 34 (Thursday, March 23, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H1288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               AMERICANS FACING LOSS OF PERSONAL PRIVACY

  (Mr. HUTCHINSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HUTCHINSON. Mr. Speaker, each day in the newspaper we read or 
hear of the news of yet another account of how Americans have a growing 
concern about invasions of their own personal privacy.
  Today in the USA Today, the headline reads, ``Filesafe, health 
records may not be confidential.'' It says, ``Most patients assume that 
what they tell their doctor is confidential, but it might not be. Blame 
the loss of privacy on the Internet or on the growing use of computer 
records.''
  Mr. Speaker, more and more Americans are voicing their concern about 
the loss of their own personal privacy. They are alarmed at the 
accessibility of medical records, their financial information, how it 
is being used. They want to know how they can get on the Internet 
without strangers downloading personal information about them. In 
today's information society, all of these issues are hopelessly 
interwoven.
  This Congress should adopt privacy legislation. The best approach is 
the bipartisan Privacy Protection Commission, which I introduced along 
with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran). A Supreme Court Justice 
said the most cherished right of civilized man is the right to be left 
alone. In this Congress, we need to address that, and I urge my 
colleagues to consider that legislation.

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