The White House Privacy Board Hasn’t Gotten Everything Right

In a recent post, I lauded the White House Privacy Board for its use of an analytical framework similar to the one I helped produce for the DHS Privacy Committee. It wasn't a total endorsement, and I covered my . . . tracks by saying, "This doesn’t mean the White House Privacy Board has gotten everything right, of course. I have no doubt that they could have done better."

Someone else shares that view, someone who should know. Lanny Davis, the lone Democrat on the Board, has resigned. Newsweek reports that he complains of “substantial” edits of the board's report in his resignation letter.

Davis charged that the White House sought to remove an extensive discussion of recent findings by the Justice Department’s inspector general of FBI abuses in the uses of so-called "national security letters" to obtain personal data on U.S. citizens without a court order. He also charged that the White House counsel’s office wanted to strike language stating that the panel planned to investigate complaints from civil liberties groups that the Justice Department had improperly used a "material witness statute" to lock up terror suspects for lengthy periods of time without charging them with any crimes.

I am not a bit surprised. Serving as I do on a similar board, I am keenly aware of the pressures to conform the group's findings to the prevailing view at the sponsoring agency. So far, the DHS Privacy Committee has been pretty good at resisting that, but it is not fully independent by any stretch.

This all is a reminder: Privacy will never be protected by government-constituted boards or officials. It is a product of individuals having the power to control information about themselves and exercising that control consistent with their interests and values. Don't ever think you've got privacy because there is a White House Privacy Board or a DHS Privacy Committee.