Senator Paul Simon
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Senator Simon:

On behalf of the 90,000 member Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the ACM U.S. Public Policy Committee (USACM) chaired by Dr. Barbara Simons, I strongly endorse the development of legislation to establish a privacy protection commission.

ACM greatly values the right of individual privacy and feels that the members of the computing profession have a special responsibility to insure that computing systems do not diminish individual privacy. ACM's Code of Professional Conduct places a responsibility on ACM members to protect individual privacy. In addition, ACM supports the Code of Fair Information Practices which places a similar responsibility on data holders to ensure that personal information is accurate, complete, reliable and protected.

ACM, the first society in computing (founded in 1947), is a non-profit educational and scientific society dedicated to the development and use of information technology, and to addressing the impact information technology has on the world's major social challenges. The USACM Committee coordinates ACM's interest in issues related to U.S. policy and its effect on information technology and the public.

Thank you for your work in this important area. Please contact Dr. Simons (tel: 408-463-5661 or 415-855-4175; fax: 408-463-2425; email: simons@vnet.ibm.com) if ACM can assist you in any way.

Sincerely,

Gwen Bell
ACM President

cc:

Barbara Simons, Chair, USACM Committee
Joseph S. DeBlasi, ACM Executive Director