by David Wagner

About the author: David Wagner is a writer for Insight on the News, a weekly newsmagazine.

As more than 700 former Republican White House staffers have discovered, the Privacy Act no longer means much in today’s highly partisan atmosphere. Given that this atmosphere not only is partisan but computerized as well, it may take laws far more sophisticated to protect the privacy of those about whom the federal government collects information. And that is a very disturbing aspect of the Filegate scandals haunting the Clinton administration. [In June 1996 it was revealed that Clinton White House security staff members had obtained the confidential FBI files of former Reagan and Bush White House staff members.]

Questions About Privacy in the Computer Age

The fact is, technological developments in collecting...