Is the Patriot Act Hurting Job Growth? The Evidence Says “Yes”!

While many Americans are opposed to the Patriot Act because it allows the government to “snoop” without due process, one impact of the law has gone largely overlooked. It may be costing the United States business hence, costing Americans jobs.

It is well known that the United States has some of the weakest privacy laws of any first world nation. The European Union has been involved in negotiations with the US over what passenger data should be released to the government by the airlines that transport them. This process has gone on for more than a year because the United States was asking for data that couldn’t be released under EU privacy laws. Until recently, European air carriers operated under an interim agreement with the EU. It has only been within the past three months that a final agreement was reached, which is far from perfect in the eyes of my EU members. On the surface, it appears that the EU caved to US pressure, with threats that their airlines would find themselves unable to land in the United States. Whether or not the agreement will last is anybody’s bet at this point.

Canada too has strict privacy laws. And in British Columbia, Canadian citizens are making their position known. Don’t outsource work involving confidential information on Canadian citizens to the American companies. The message may be getting through.

The British Columbia Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) has come out publicly opposing a move by the government of British Columbia two award two contracts to American Companies. These contracts would involve giving these companies access to highly personal information of union members including name, address, telephone number, social insurance number, family history, employment history, income, credit card and bank numbers, charitable donations and mortgage details.

The BCGEU has said “Privacy guarantees with contractors will be no match for the prying post-9/11 eyes of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the all- intrusive powers of the U.S Patriot Act.”

George Heyman, president of the BCEU said in a letter to the British Columbia Privacy Minister that, "The FBI can use the USA Patriot Act to knock down any legal, constitutional or electronic walls to get British Columbians’ personal information."

"And once that information is released it’s impossible to predict how far within American agencies it will be distributed, or how it will be used,"

"In this era of post 9/11 hysteria, where American authorities call Canada as a haven for terrorists, that’s an empty reassurance. In our submission, we argue there’s every indication that for the United States, homeland security is its first, highest priority-the rights of its own citizens are a distant second, and it is unconcerned about the sensitivities of other nations."

The BCEU has initiated legal action to prevent the awarding of these contracts. It has also requested a public inquiry be convened to openly discuss the outsourcing of sensitive data to firms based in the US.

By Jim Malmberg