Page 147 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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Political Organizations
announce sunset legislation aimed at killing Know Your Customer, as did
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Republican Representative Bob Barr. This action in the House signaled
that public efforts to oppose Know Your Customer might have found at
least limited support inside Congress.
From the perspective of the Libertarian Party, however, directly gen-
erating much public attention to the issue was beyond its traditional
reach. The party lacked both the funds for a major mass media adver-
tising campaign and a sufficiently large membership to provide much
of a direct political threat. Dues-paying members numbered fewer than
40,000, making the Libertarian Party about the size of a modest interest
group. However, the party did possess a list of 10,000 electronic mail ad-
dresses it had collected through its web site, and it was to these interested
citizens that it sent a notice in January. This mailing produced a modest
response – strong enough to signal to the party that the issue might be a
good one, but too small to influence public officials.
ByearlyFebruary,partyofficialsfeltpotentialpublicsentimentagainst
Know Your Customer to be large enough possibly to derail the rules, if a
sufficiently large number of citizens could be mobilized. On the Hill, op-
position was strengthening among Republicans on the House and Senate
banking committees, and at the same time the American Civil Liberties
47
Union was preparing opposition. Libertarian officials felt that the elec-
tronic mail campaign they had initiated during the prior month held the
greatest promise for leveraging citizen involvement beyond the party’s
own membership if it could be repeated on a larger scale. Libertarians
were aware of the Move On effort and explicitly interested in repeating
it. 48 The new electronic campaign would be far less expensive than di-
rect mail or broadcast advertising, but would still require paying for web
site design and an information system for managing larger volumes of
electronic mail.
On February 17, the party launched a web site called DefendYourPri-
vacy.comthatpermittedcitizenstofiletheirofficialcommentsonthepro-
posed rules. It also permitted citizens to send electronic mail to members

46
Paul’s bill was H.R. 516 and Barr’s H.R. 530.
47
See House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, “Leach Urges Revision to
Proposed Know Your Customer Rules,” Press Release, Feb. 4, 1999; House Committee
onBankingandFinancialServices,SubcommitteeonCommercialandAdministrative
Law, The “Know Your Customer” Rules: Privacy in the Hands of Federal Regulators:
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, 106th Cong.,
1st sess., March 4, 1999; U.S. Senate, letter from Senators Phil Gramm and Robert F.
Bennett to Alan Greenspan, Feb. 10, 1999.
48
Dasbach interview.
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