Detailed personal information of 4,904 Americans, whose only transgression was buying a book, has been shared by "nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration," McClatchy
reports. The information about these individuals shared includes Social Security numbers, addresses and professions.
Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. [...]
Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they’d checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.
It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.
Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn’t receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he’d never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.
Most of these people had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men originally being investigated. One, a Washington lawyer, somehow got on the list without ever having contacted one of the two men. Another explained that his boss, a president of a union, had gotten the book for information about the unreliability of lie detector tests so the union could urge members not to voluntarily undergo a polygraph.
Under what authority, exactly, all of this information could be obtained by the original agency, Customs, and then shared so broadly among other agencies isn't clear. Nor is it clear under what authority those agencies are retaining it. Customs says that it can get background information like this for employees and for job applicants, but not for the general public. Which almost all of these people are.
A remedy, however, might be hard for these people to find, says Washington attorney Kel McClanahan, because the Privacy Act is so loosely written.
“Even the most extreme cases of overreach like this are virtually impossible to litigate because of a poorly written law from 1974,” McClanahan said. “This is merely a symptom of the problem.”