http://www.FairfaxCountyPrivacyCouncil.org
========================================

FCPC ALERT #2004-7
FAIRFAX COUNTY PRIVACY COUNCIL
Originally Published on
1 November 2004
=======================================

Greetings! This message is intended for members of the Fairfax County Privacy Council, and anyone else who might be interested in advancing privacy in Virginia. Maximum dissemination of this message is encouraged!

Privacy Notice: All communication from the Fairfax Privacy Council is sent using blind carbon copy ("BCC") format for your security and privacy.

ALERT ITEM SUMMARY:
1.  “Identity Theft:  The Michelle Brown Story,” tonight on Lifetime TV @ 9PM
2.  Medicare SSN alert
3.  Civil liberties oversight board proposal in trouble
4.  FCPC website updated with the “Privacy Pizza”
5.  Public meeting re: implantable microchip dangers
6.  Privacy Quote:  "Smart-card advocates have no right to…”

************************************
1.  “Identity Theft:  The Michelle Brown Story,” tonight on Lifetime TV @ 9PM
************************************
Based on a true story, this movie highlights the real world danger to individual security posed by identity thieves and others seeking to impersonate you and your good name.  See previews and synopsis at http://www.lifetimetv.com/movies/originals/index.html.  Movie starts at 9PM on Lifetime TV on 1 November 2004.

************************************
2.  Medicare SSN ALERT
************************************
Wonder where malicious ID thieves start when they want to prey on you?  They start by finding your full name address, and either your date of birth or Social Security Number (“SSN”).

Your SSN is the key to perpetrating identity theft. Carrying an insurance card that uses the SSN as an ID number leaves consumers at risk for identity theft if their purse or wallet is stolen. And insurers who use the SSN as an ID number usually include it in correspondence, creating an easy target for mail thieves.

Though many states including Arizona, California, Georgia, Texas, and Utah, have laws that prevent private, commercial insurance companies from using your SSN on insurance cards and on correspondence, the federal Medicare program still uses the SSN
as an ID number. And if you use Medicare, you know that your ID
card advises you to carry the card with you.

TAKE ACTION! Tell Your Congressional Reps and the Dept. of Health and Human Services to Stop Using Your SSN as an ID Number for Medicare at www.FinancialPrivacyNow.org.

************************************
3.  Civil liberties oversight board proposal in trouble
************************************
At this very moment, leaders from the House and Senate are engaged in heated negotiations over what could become the most dramatic restructuring ever of our nation's intelligence agencies. One of the key sticking points is the creation of a robust Privacy and Civil Liberties Board to ensure that government actions do not infringe on our liberties.

The 9/11 Commission endorsed the creation of a strong board. Yet in its version of the legislation to implement the commission's recommendations, the House rejected the creation of a board, a position that the Bush White House has endorsed. Fortunately, however, the bipartisan Senate version of the legislation included a strong board.

TAKE ACTION! Tell Congress at http://www.aclu.org/NationalSecurity/NationalSecurity.cfm?orgid=n&ID=16886&c=24&MX=1680&H=1 that we can be both safe and free and that the final intelligence reform bill must include the creation of a powerful and independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to act as a watchdog over our civil liberties.

************************************
4.  FCPC website updated
************************************
Check out www.FairfaxCountyPrivacyCouncil.org and click on the “Privacy Pizza” link to learn what life might soon be like in America under the surveillance industrial complex.  Share the FCPC web site with your friends and family and recommend they join the free FCPC alert service by emailing FCPCChairman@cox.net with the key word “subscribe” in the subject or message body of the email.

************************************
5.  Public meeting re: implantable microchip dangers
************************************
For those in the Tidewater Virginia area, Pam Stewart of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (“CASPIAN”) will be giving a lecture on the implantable Microchip and its dangers on Sunday, November 14, 2004 at noon at St. Benedicts Chapel, 521 McCosh Drive, Chesapeake, Va. in the Forrest Hall room.  For further information contact Pam at 757-416-0802 and see http://www.nocards.com.

************************************
6.  Privacy Quote:  "Smart-card advocates have no right to…” ************************************
"Smart-card advocates have no right to access our private information without going over the appropriate legal hurdles. Virginia lawmakers should table this proposal for smart driver's licenses until more safeguards are in place."

--Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. (vice president for policy and director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, see http://www.cei.org/dyn/view_expert.cfm?expert=34), “Too Smart For Our Own Good,” The Washington Post, 31 October 2004, page B08, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10793-2004Oct29.html).

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Questions, or to be added/deleted from future Alerts?  Contact Mike Stollenwerk atFCPCChairman@cox.net.