Patrick Leahy: “the digitization of information and the explosion in the growth of computing and electronic networking offer tremendous…”

“the digitization of information and the explosion in the growth of computing and electronic networking offer tremendous potential benefits to the way Americans live, work, conduct commerce, and interact with their government. This bill, S. 2107, will make the United States government more accessible and accountable to the citizenry by directing federal agencies to accept ``electronic signatures'' for government forms that are submitted electronically. I am pleased that Senator Abraham has addressed my concerns about the privacy issues raised by this legislation. As reported out of committee, S. 2107 would have established a framework for government use of electronic signatures without putting in place any privacy protections for the vast amounts of personal information collected in the process. Without such protections, people could be forced to sacrifice their privacy as the price of communicating with the government electronically. For example, to submit a particular form electronically, a person might be required to use an electronic signature technology that offers a high level of security, such as the increasingly popular cryptographic digital signature.”