STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305 © (415) 321-1200

 

 

STANForD UNIversiTy SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
Department of Genetics

Joshua Lederberg

Mr. Charles Witter

Professional Staff Member

Special STudies Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations
Rayburn House Office Building, Room B377

Washington, D. C. 20515

Dear Mr. Witter:

I have had your letter of May 28 in mind since receiving it; and
it coincided mx with my already formed intentions of commenting at
wome length en some human issues raised by computer technology.

JUL 27 1969

Perhaps you have already seen the first of a series of articles
on this theme, starting in the Washington Post for July 26. The piece
scheduled for this XKAMK Saturday may be of even more direct interest
to you and Mr. Gallagher, since it takes up the very construautive
actions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Unfortunately, most of the comment in this field (e.g. Jerry iosen-
berg's book) has been more arousing than constructive, and I think it
is high time we looked for specific legislative actions that would
do better than merely dump the National Data Center into limbo. The
FCRA is an excellent first step; I would be most interested to learn
of additional, positive measures that have been proposed in order
to meet our legitimate concerns. I am thinking through some measures
of this kind myself -- like the protect&on of statistical data hanks
by entrusting them te special corporations, as proposed in my 7/26
article. But I would be very grateful for leads to other measures
that may have been ventilated by Mr. Gallagbhhr or before his committeee

s
The right to a "sevond-chance" that he spoke about ts too precious
to leave it to the odds of neglect, whether the files are computerized
or not. But it ought to be applied as a matter of principle in other rook
cases, like these summarized in the enclosed Science article. Will bias
Mr. Gallagher have the courage to apply his reasoning to these circum-
atances?

I also enclose a summary of the SRI analysis of the replies to the
FCC inquiry on computer-communications. Unless your committee is indeed
pursuing material legislation to cover these situations, many of these
correspondents are going to be disapeinted.

May Ialso call your attention to an excellent review by Lance
Hoffman in the current issue of Computing Surveys.

Could I ask you to get me a copy of the Long subconmittee hearings

of March 1967?
urs sincerely

LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY NEUROBIOLOGY DEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE
I have been trying te decument and understand that
first paragraph. It makes about as much sense as
inveighing against the telephene beok or the
veter-regisatration recerds. Since Napoleon, the
mevements of citizens in European cities generally
(until very recently) were routinely controlled
by obligatory reports to'the police, e.g., of
hotel registrations, and required some form of

_ internal passport. These are not confidential
‘records; but are obviously subject to potential
abuse, and I have no xngent intention of proposing
er defending this kind of personal registration.

‘Ido not think this kind of analogy is very helpful
te clear thinking about concrete arrangements to
prevent, deter and punish real abuses.

PREFACE ;
— Joshua Lederberg . |

When Adolf Hitler was aspiring to the Chancellorship of / _
Germany, he acquired the confidential European Census and
used it to weed out some of his potential antagonists.

With the advance of technology, centralized data accumu-
lation becomes easier, the reward for intrusion is increased,

_ and control shifts to still fewer people. ff... Hitin?

Should we not be concerned about a computerized federal
data center that could collect, store and distribute information
about every one of us? Although the data may be acquired in
‘a Constitutionally sound fashion, its use could present the
greatest threat to our remaining right to individual privacy.

Likewise, as computerized data facilities are established in
nongovernmental institutions, the issue of privacy and infor-
mation leakage may become more explosive since laws are less
able to enter the hidden corridors and file systems in industry,
labor and education. In the private sector, management's dis-
interest in the privacy issue or in safeguards of data retrieval
may invite resistance.

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