Proposed Federal Privacy Bill: Do As We Say, Not As We Do

Senators John Kerry and John McCain have introduced federal privacy legislation designed “to protect the personal information of all Americans.” That’s great. But as this post on cnet News explains, there’s a little catch. The proposed legislation doesn’t apply to information gathered by federal or state governmental agencies. But I guess that quote from above would be a little too wordy if it said the legislation is designed “to protect the personal information of all Americans, except when that information is collected by any state or federal governmental agency.” See what I mean? Accurate, but wordy.