Word: computerizes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even as U.S. robotmakers wallowed in their early success, the Japanese, who imported their first hydraulic robot in 1967, were coming up with a new product. Fitted with high-speed computer chips and sophisticated circuitry, the new electric machines received instructions via computer-software programs. The machines tended to be...
* Many of the ways in which the Government uses its data banks seem at least reasonable. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, uses computer searches to withhold tax refunds from people who have defaulted on federal loans. But other intrusions on privacy are far more dubious. One agency concerned with...
Private data banks offer further opportunities for electronic surveillance, and the public has few safeguards against prying by companies. The only major law pertaining to private computer files is the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970. Under its provisions, credit-rating bureaus must give people access to their own credit...
The spread of computer data banks would be less disturbing if the information in them were not so freely passed around. Insurance companies, for example, exchange the medical histories of prospective customers. Credit bureaus often sell their data to employers who are screening job applicants. Other companies have developed computer...
...efforts by lawmakers to address concerns about computerized invasions of privacy are still embryonic. A bill to create "data integrity boards" to oversee Government computer matching programs is expected to pass Congress this year. But civil libertarians argue that tighter restrictions are needed. The alternative, they say, is a frightening drift toward an Orwellian society in which Big Brother is always watching. Says Jerry Berman, director of the Project on Privacy and Technology of the American Civil Liberties Union: "If you have a surveillance system looking over a wide range of activities, the message is clear: don't deviate. That...