February 23, 2012 7:55AM # A ‘Privacy Bill of Rights’: Second Verse, Same as the First By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE The White House [announces a “privacy bill of rights” today](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/web-privacy-bill-of-rights_n_1294230.html). We went over this a year ago, when Senators Kerry (D‑MA) and McCain (R‑AZ) introduced their “privacy bill of rights.” The post is called “[The ‘Privacy Bill of Rights’ Is in the Bill of Rights](https://www.cato.org/the-privacy-bill-of-rights-is-in-the-bill-of-rights/),” and its admonitions apply equally well today: > It takes a lot of gall to put the moniker “Privacy Bill of Rights” on legislation that reduces liberty in the information economy while the Fourth Amendment remains tattered and threadbare. Nevermind “reasonable expectations”: the people’s right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures is worn down to the nub. > > > Senators Kerry and McCain \[and now the White House\] should look into the privacy consequences of the Internal Revenue Code. How is privacy going to fare under Obamacare? How is the Department of Homeland Security doing with its privacy efforts? What is an “administrative search”? ##### Related Tags [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).