The Barack Obama administration
has
announced plans to lift a government ban on tracking
visitors to government websites, and potentially,
collect their personal data through the use of "cookies"
– an effort some suspect may already be in place on White
House sites.
A ban on such
tracking by the federal government on Internet users has
been in place since 2000, however, the White House Office of
Management and Budget now wants to
lift the ban citing a "compelling need."
In fact, according to
the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal
agencies have already negotiated agreements and contracts
with social networking sites like Google, YouTube,
SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO
to collect information on visitors for federal
web sites. All of these private companies are
known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the
public has never seen them.
According to Obama
"technology czar" Vivek Kundra,
the "compelling need" driving this major policy reversal is
the administration's desire to create "more open" government
and to "enhance citizen participation in government."
"According to the
new technology czar, there is a 'compelling need' to do
this," said O'Leary. "The only
compelling need I can think of is for a failing Obama
administration to compile an enemy list of gun owners,
pro-lifers, tea-party participants, those opposed to illegal
immigration, and anyone opposed to the Obama-Pelosi agenda
of government control over Americans' lives."
Spy cookies
can do more than merely recall the
user names and passwords of visitors who return to their
favorite web sites. They can also track, retrieve
and report selected movements someone makes on the Internet.
Through the use of cookies, the federal government
could have the power to create an
individual profile of anyone who visits a government website
– right down to a person's recent online purchases, or even
race, gender and income level.
