Commencement Address at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan - Brief Article - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 8, 2000

We've taken some historic steps to stop information about your personal spending habits from being shared without your permission. But even today the law doesn't prevent firms within a financial conglomerate from sharing information with each other. In other words, the life insurance company could share information about your medical history with the bank without giving you any choice in the matter. The bank could share information from your student loans and your credit cards with its telemarketer or its broker, again without giving you any choice. I believe that is wrong.

Today I present a plan to protect the privacy of Americans' financial records. I challenge Congress to act on it this year. Because your information doesn't belong to just anyone; every consumer and every family deserves choices about how their personal information is shared.

First, before your financial information is shared between two affiliated companies, say, a credit card company and an insurance company, you would get notice, and you could say no.

Second, for the most sensitive type of information, I think there should be an extra level of protection. As more banks and insurance companies merge, lenders could gain access to private medical information and many insurance records. But no one should have to worry that the results of their latest physical exam will be used to deny them a home mortgage or a credit card. Under my plan, you'd get to say no.

Third, we would add that same safeguard to the information that makes up your personal spending identity, such as the list of every purchase you've ever made by check or debt or credit card, everything you buy. Again, that information could be shared only if you say yes.

And finally, to make sure you have control over the comprehensive records that financial institutions may assemble about you, we'll make sure you have access to those records and the right to correct mistakes in them. We must be able to enjoy the benefits of technology without sacrificing our privacy, to maximize the promise of the information age and still protect our individual liberties.

Our national character also requires new rules for the information age that recognize opportunity for all, now means access to technology for all. Just as we closed the industrial divide in the 20th century, we must now close the digital divide in the 21st century.

You know, if you're educated for the information age, who you are and where you are don't matter as much anymore. I have seen that with people in the poorest villages of the world logging onto the Internet and getting an education, getting information once available only in textbooks, learning how to take care of their children, learning how to start new businesses. But if who and where you are don't matter so much, what you know and what you can do matter more than ever. That's why this degree and what you learned here is so important. That's why technology education is so important.

Technology in this new era will either erase lines that divide us or widen them. The Internet and computers make it possible for us to lift more people out of poverty faster than at any time in history, but it will not happen by accident. Many of you have learned this lesson in your own lives.