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The issue of online privacy in the Internet age found new urgency following the Sept. ll terrorist attacks, sparking debate over striking the correct balance between protecting civil liberties and attempting to prevent another tragic terrorist act. While preventing terrorism certainly is of paramount importance, privacy rights should not be deemed irrelevant.
In response to the attacks, Congress quickly passed legislation that included provisions expanding rights of investi-gators to intercept wire, oral and electronic communications of alleged hackers and terrorists. Civil liberties groups ex-pressed concerns over the provisions and urged caution in ensuring that efforts to protect our nation do not result in broad government authority to erode privacy rights of U. S. citizens. Nevertheless, causing further concern to civil liberties groups, the Department of Justice proposed exceptions to the attorney-client privilege. On Oct. 30, Attorney General John Ashcroft approved an interim agency rule that would permit federal prison authorities to monitor wire and electronic communications between lawyers and their clients in federal custody, including those who have been de-tained but not charged with any crime, whenever surveillance is deemed necessary to prevent violence or terrorism.
In light of this broadening effort to reach into communications that were previously believed to be "off-limits",the issue of online privacy is now an even more pressing concern. Congress has taken some legislative steps toward en-suring online privacy, including the Children' s Online Privacy Protection Act, and provided privacy protections for certain sectors through legislation such as the Financial Services Modernization Act. The legislation passed to date does not, however, provide a statutory scheme for protecting general online consumer privacy. Lacking definitive federal law, some states passed their own measures. But much of this legislation is incomplete or not enforced. Moreover, it becomes unworkable when states create different privacy standards; the Intemet does not know geographic boundaries,and companies and individuals cannot be expected to comply with differing, and at times conflicting, privacy rules.
An analysis earlier this year of 751 U. S. and international Web sites conducted by Consumers International found that most sites collect personal information but fail to tell consumers how that data will be used, how security is maintained and what fights consumers have over their own information.
At a minimum, Congress should pass legislation requiring Web sites to display privacy policies prominently, in-form consumers of the methods employed to collect client data, allow customers to opt out of such data collection,and provide customer access to their own data that has already been collected. Although various Intemet privacy bills were introduced in the 107th Congress, the focus shifted to expanding government surveillance in the wake of the ter-rorist attacks. Plainly, government efforts to prevent terrorism are appropriate. Exactly how these exigent circum-stances change the nature of the online privacy debate is stiff to be seen.
56. Concerning the protection of privacy and increased surveillance of communication, the author seems to insist on
[ A ] the priority of the former action
[ B ] the execution of the latter at the expense of the former
[C] tightening both policies at the same time
[ D ] a balance between the two actions
57. The author implies in the second paragraph that __
[ A] the proposal of the Department of Justice is unjustified
[ B ] surveillance of any suspect communication is necessary
[ C ] civil liberties groups should not have shown such great concern
[ D ] exceptions should be made in intercepting communications
58. In the eyes of the author, the Financial Service Modernization Act __
[ A ] serves no more than as a new patch on an old robe
[ B ] indicates the Congress' s admirable move to protect privacy
[ C ] invades online consumer privacy rather than protect it
[ D] is deficient in that it leaves many sectors unshielded
59. Privacy standards made by individual states are ineffective because __
[ A ] the standards of different states contradict each other
[ B ] online communication is not restricted to any state
[ C ] these standards ignore the federai law on the matter
[ D ] these standards are only applicable to regional Web sites
60. The expression "opt out of such data collection" ( in the last paragraph) probably means __
[ A ] pick out from such data the information one needs
[ B ] shift through such data to collect one' s own information
[ C ] evaluate the purpose for such data collection
[ D ] choose not to be involved in such data collectio
