Planned Economy, Privacy Problems

If someone asked you what's wrong with a planned economy, your first answer might not be "privacy." But it should be. For proof, look no further than the financial regulation bill the Senate is debating. Its 1,400 pages contain strong prescriptions for a government-micromanaged economy---and the undoing of your financial privacy. Here's a look at some of the personal data collection this revamp of financial services regulation will produce.

The "Office of Financial Research" (sec. 152) will have a "Data Center" (sec. 154) that requires submisson of data on any financial activity that poses a threat to financial stability.

Use your noggin, now: Will government researchers know in advance what might cause financial instability? Will they home in on precisely that? No.

This is government entrée into any financial activities federal bureaucrats suspect might cause instability. It's carte blanche to examine all financial transactions---including yours. (Confidentiality rules? The better view is that privacy is lost when the government takes data from your control, but we'll come back to confidentiality.)

The Office of Financial Research is also a sop to industry. Morgan Stanley estimates that it will save the company 20 to 30 percent of its operating costs. The advocates for this bureaucracy want to replace the competitive environment for financial data with a uniform government data platform. Students of technology will instantly recognize what this data monoculture means: If the government's data and assumptions are bad, everyone's data and assumptions are bad, and all players in the financial services system fall together. The Office of Financial Research itself poses a threat to financial stability.

But all that's about money. On with privacy...

The "Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection" (sec. 1011) in the bill is another beetle boring into your personal financial life. Among its mandates is to "gather information . . . regarding the organization, business conduct, markets, and activities of persons operating in consumer financial services markets" (sec. 1022(c)(4)).

In case you're wondering, the definition of "person" includes "an individual" (sec. 1002(17)). The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection can investigate your business conduct and activities.

Come now. All this private data gathering can't possibly be what they mean to do, can it?

Section 1071(b) requires any deposit-taking financial institution to geo-code customer addresses and maintain records of deposits for at least three years. Think of the government having its own Google map of where you and your neighbors do your banking. The Bureau may "use the data for any other purpose as permitted by law," such as handing it off to other bureaus, like the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Still, that's really not what the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection is supposed to be about, is it? It can't be!

It's not. Nor was the Social Security number about creating a uniform national identifier that facilitates both lawful (excessive) data collection and identity fraud. The construction of surveillance infrastructure doesn't turn on the intentions of its builders. They're just giving another turn to the wheels that crush privacy.

Promises of confidentiality and "de-identified" data are not reassuring. It's getting harder and harder to collect data that are not personally identifiable. Latanya Sweeney's 2002 "k-anonymity" paper is best known for establishing how anonymous data can be "re-identified," unraveling promised confidentiality and privacy.

Just a few "anonymous" data points can pick out individuals. Data-driven triangulation on individuals will get easier as data collection grows society-wide. Confidentiality rules in the bill will tend to fail over time, if they're not simply reversed when some future exigency demands it. If we're to maintain privacy, government data collection should be shrinking, not growing.

How do you manage an economy from the top? You collect data. Thanks to computing and communications, there are lots of data available nowadays. Maybe the failed Progressive-Era dream of "scientific government" has been revitalized by the idea that data can shore up regulation's natural defects.

My colleague Mark Calabria has investigated and drawn into question whether it was a lack of consumer protection that caused the financial crisis. But Washington, D.C. has determined that Washington, D.C. should manage the financial services industry. Your personal and private financial affairs will be managed there too.