Rootsweb Listers everywhere. I have never forward something like this to any of the Rootsweb list that I am subscribed to. But there is always a first time for everything. It came in on the Green List and I wanted to be sure you all know about it. I mean, we're all related in one way or another to everyone else. As you can tell by all the lists I subscribe to. John Green. -----Original Message----- From: ALLAGREEN@aol.com <ALLAGREEN@aol.com> To: GREEN-L@rootsweb.com <GREEN-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Saturday, May 20, 2000 12:49 AM Subject: [GREEN-L] (no subject) >Dear Friends: > >I thought that maybe it was not possible for a member of Congress to further >amaze me with his stupidity, but this has managed to make me rethink that >possibility. > >Allan E. Green > >New Privacy Threat: Genealogy? >by Declan McCullagh >3:00 p.m. May. 18, 2000 PDT > >Just when you thought there was nothing new to say about the oft-cited >privacy threats that Americans face, along comes Congress with another >worry: genealogy. > >During a privacy hearing Thursday before a House Judiciary subcommittee, >Rep. Ed Pease (R-Ind.) said the growing number of websites that allow >people to trace their families' history was a threat that called for >legislative action. > >"There are some commercial ventures now providing information on this >subject ... oftentimes genealogical information involves a mother's maiden >name, and that is often used by many as a password," Pease said. > >Genealogy.com, for instance, says it has 470 million names in its database. >It allows you to search someone's family tree using their full or partial >name. > >Clinton administration representatives -- who were planning to testify >before the panel about cookies and industry self-regulation -- were caught >completely off-guard by Pease's comments. > >"This is not really anything I've heard about yet," replied Andrew Pincus, >general counsel to the U.S. Department of Commerce. > >"We're dealing mainly with commercial sites, and not these," said Jodie >Bernstein, director of the bureau of consumer protection at the Federal >Trade Commission. > >Pease shot back that "a growing number of commercial ventures" provided >such potentially troubling information and he'd "sure appreciate" it if >the FTC would investigate. > >To survive a free speech challenge, any legal restrictions Congress imposes >would have to comply with the First Amendment, which limits government >controls on publications and websites. > >"Rep. Pease has gotten it all backwards. The inherent insecurity of using >mother's maiden name as a password means that the practice of doing so must >stop, just as most of us know better than to use our birthdays or first >names as any form of password," said Stanton McCandlish, an amateur genealogy >researcher and spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. > >"Genealogists are neither a new threat, nor any threat at all. Mothers' >maiden names are available from numerous public sources, while the security >risk of using them for passwords is increasingly well known. (Such a bill) >will not withstand even a cursory First Amendment challenge in court," >McCandlish said. >