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161   The 'Mysterious' Computer
      Will Not Abet Witch-Hunts
      The Washington Post   July 26, 1969

     The computer ranks with writing and the printing press as a
major extension of the human brain.  Like its forerunners, it also
stands at the crux of a social crisis expressed in terms like "the
death of privacy".  The first written records must have evoked a
reaction of superstitious awe and exultation similar to that now
inspired by computer management data.

     If people today still have an exaggerated belief in what they see
in print, they often place an even higher credibility on computer
printouts.  The data may be worthless or even intentionally
manipulated, but so long as the machine remains so mysterious, its
products will be improperly and uncritically judged simply for having
come from a computer.

     An unfortunate by-product of this aura of mystery is a tendency
to make the computer a scapegoat for social ills that stem from human
venality.  In fact, no tangible evidence supports the fear that the
processing of personal data by computers makes political witchhunts
more likely.  The only help that Hitler could have had from computers
would have been to reduce the administrative costs of butchery.  It
is our social and political traditions, and our system of freedom
under law, that need our attention more than any particular piece of
technology available to a government.

     For example, Gov. Ronald Reagan has just vetoed a bill to extend
the privilege of legal confidence to professions like marriage
counseling and psychiatric social work.  His grounds were that law
enforcement in California might be impeded if, say, a marriage
counselor could refuse to testify in court about information he had
received from his clients.  Legal protection for the privacy of the
most intimate communications deserves a much higher priority than
the potential abuses of more efficient statistical services.

     Many citizens harbor a barely conscious resentment of computer
systems that make it harder to cheat on income tax returns.  This
resentment will not survive reflection on fair taxation in a
democratic society.  However, we do have real cause for concern about
the extent to which our compulsory tax returns (computerized or
not) can be made available to other investigative bodies without our
knowledge and for purposes unrelated to tax administration.  If there
are social merits in an annual registration that goes beyond the
collection of taxes, let this be freely and openly discussed -- and
let us all know the rules of the game.

     Meanwhile, the covert exchange of data on individuals has
generated wide unease about the collection of vital statistical
information for the census and other operations.  This is in the face
of the historical evidence that the Census Bureau has a spotless
record in following its legal mandate of protecting the confidence of
individual data even against strong pressures from other government
agencies.

     These traditions of the Census Bureau are the strongest assurance
that the law of confidence will continue to be upheld despite the
more dubious history of wiretapping and similar intrusions by other
executive agencies.

     One further step might be to remove the Bureau from the Executive
Branch, where it is theoretically subject to presidential orders that
are beyond the reach of the courts.  The census could be delegated to
a public corporation whose policies and practices in collecting,
protecting and collating information could be governed by a law that
would give individuals a standing they do not now have in potential
grievances about abuse of privacy by the central government.

     Such a corporation would also be governed by a board of private
citizens who could give a unique assurance of integrity and
impartiality in its operations.  Within such a legal framework, we
might justify the confidence of individual citizens in the degree of
centralization of statistical data that we badly need for assessing
and planning our complex society.
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