Charles R. Smith
Tuesday, March 6, 2001

According to Twila Brase, R.N. and president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care, the lack of privacy can cost far more than money.

"Outside access to phone and credit card information certainly can make individuals feel vulnerable and can bring about loss of credit, identity and finances, " stated Brase.

"However, phone numbers and credit card numbers can be changed and funds can be moved to another bank. But with breaches in the confidentiality of medical records, the stakes are higher, particularly for those individuals in prominent positions.

"Access to one's medical care, mental health status, and pharmaceutical use allows intruders to gain permanent information about an individual – information that can be damaging or can point to personal weaknesses," noted Brase.

"Such medical history, diagnoses and individual tendencies cannot be changed like a credit card number. Access to this information can provide a powerful tool to influence legislation, thwart an election, make corporate decisions, decide terms of a merger or build coalitions.

"Those who gain access to individual medical records through breaches in electronic data systems can wield great power over those who have the most to hide. In all likelihood, pre-election access to President Clinton's medical record may have provided evidence of his tendency to philander, thereby ending his presidential bid," noted Brase.

"Patients and doctors need to begin to view all e-mail like a postcard, open to the world. No physician should send sensitive data by e-mail without specific written permission from the patient. Although we've just heard about one e-mail virus, there are undoubtedly others yet to come, along with intrusive devices yet to be discovered and invented," stated Brase flatly.

"And let's not forget Carnivore, the great eavesdropping device of the government that's now under scrutiny by civil rights and privacy groups," noted Brase.

Both Clintons Led Attack on Privacy

Carnivore, the most recent example of FBI snooping software, is reported to be able to scoop up all of targeted individuals' Internet traffic, including e-mail. Carnivore is only one project aimed at destroying America's privacy. In fact, the FBI under the Clinton administration developed an entire series of hardware and software devices intended to monitor U.S. citizens.

Bill Clinton, always first to claim some form of legal privacy over his activities inside the Oval Office, did not carry the same zeal when it came to defending others. The Clinton years of attacks on privacy began with first lady Hillary and the top secret part of her 1993 health care task force.

Hillary's National ID Card

Mrs. Clinton's task force drew up a plan to issue all U.S. citizens a national health care ID card. According to documents forced from the government using the Freedom of Information Act, the plan included inserting a special government-designed chip into the cards. The idea was the Department of Justice could then monitor your health care providers for fraud and abuse. The result would be to monitor you wherever you presented your card.

The Clipper project, a computer chip with an "exploitable" feature, was developed in secret by the U.S. government during the senior George Bush's administration.

According to the documents, the snooper chip and some of Mrs. Clinton's involvement became public in 1993. One smart-card manufacturer wrote the Clinton administration and argued against the plan for the Clipper chip to be part of mandatory Hillary Clinton health care.

"Health cards are a major new market for smart cards. ... One of their greatest features is to increase the privacy of a citizen's health record," wrote John M. Taskett, vice president of Microcard Technologies, a company in Dallas.

"The current [Clinton] administration is also looking at a national health card for all U.S. citizens. Surely the Department of Justice does not need access to the keys within these cards? Does the government have a need to know, even with a court order, what is inside a citizen's health card if the citizen chooses to keep it private?" asked Taskett in his 1993 letter to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Project Led by Webster Hubbell

The Clipper chip, however, was intended for more than just your Hillary health care card. The Clipper project also included provisions to make the super-chip required in every telephone, fax and computer made or sold in the U.S.

According to a March 1993 Justice Department memo from Stephen Colgate, assistant attorney general for administration, to Webster Hubbell, the Clipper chip was to be required by law. Colgate's memo to Hubbell details how the Clintons planned to bug every phone in America.

According to the March 1993 Colgate memo to Hubbell, "FBI, NSA and NSC want to push legislation which would require all government agencies and eventually everyone in the U.S. to use a new [Clipper chip] public-key based cryptography method."

In 1997, the Clipper project sank after years of protests and Freedom of Information requests. However, much about the Clipper project remains top secret today. In February, the National Security Agency (NSA) refused to release the Clipper information provided to Hillary Clinton and convicted Whitewater figure Webster Hubbell until 2005.

Big Brother Never Sleeps

The Clipper idea to monitor thousands, perhaps millions, at once, has been reborn again and again inside secret government computer labs, most recently in the form of "Carnivore" – an FBI program designed to monitor all Internet traffic.

Yet, the FBI Carnivore and NSA Clipper systems can be defeated with electronic scrambling and secret codes. One legal right currently held by all Americans is the right to have secret codes. Modern secret computer codes, also known as encryption, have played a significant role in protecting U.S secrets inside the Defense Department.

Today computer encryption is viewed as a form of digital alchemy, turning "golden" data into "garbage" and back again. The rule remains simple. Only those with the electronic keys can access the golden data.

"Electronic data on a disk is easy to steal, to lose, to link, to transfer, and to carry around the world. Just try to cart 1,000 paper medical records anywhere, and the difference is clear," pointed out Citizens' Council on Health Care President Twila Brase.

"Electronic data is vulnerable. Encryption can provide a measure of safety, but those who develop encryption can break encryption. It's much like the work of cryptographers and deciphering specialists during the war. As the enemy broke the code, another code had to be created," noted Brase.

FBI Director Freeh's Role

FBI Director Louis Freeh opposes U.S. encryption while admitting the U.S. is under digital attack. Freeh supported the mandatory Clipper project to bug America. Freeh's FBI also developed the intrusive Carnivore program, and Freeh has repeatedly testified that all encryption products should be banned. In fact, Freeh testified before the Senate on Sept. 3, 1997 that the Founding Fathers "did not foresee encryption."

Obviously, the FBI director flunked history class. The fact is the Founding Fathers knew very well of codes and ciphers. Jefferson, Franklin and even Washington used codes and ciphers for personal business. Paul Revere used the same techniques that, today, the director of the FBI proposes to ban.

President Bush has selected Freeh to continue as FBI director. Yet the FBI failed to detect the highest Russian agent in U.S. government service. Freeh policies and practices are anti-privacy, proven by his term with Bill Clinton.

Will Bush Change Things?

The question now is will the same policies stay in effect under Bush? According to Brase, the only way to protect privacy is to mandate it by law.

"For thousands of years a paper medical record and professional and ethical standards have protected patients from 'inquiring minds who want to know.' But now the keepers of the data are health plans, data clearinghouses and the government, none of which are required to hold a professional standard," stated Brase.

"For the purposes of patient privacy, we would like to see every patient have the option of a paper medical record held confidentially at the doctor's office and inaccessible to outsiders without consent. Although it is sure to be seen as inconvenient, especially for those who want easy access to data, the inconvenience may be the patient's best and only assurance of confidentiality and privacy," concluded Brase.

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