As recently reported in Federal Computer Week and elsewhere, 28 NASA employees have filed a lawsuit to block the agency's adoption of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, saying the required background check violates their right to privacy. “'By signing this supposed ‘voluntary waiver,’ I’m giving government investigators or whomever they designate the right to look into all areas of my private life,' said Zareh Gorjianm, a technical staff member in JPL’s Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Group." (Read the complete article here.) In a recent editorial, Editor in Chief Chris Dorobek suggests that the federal government needs to take these concerns seriously: "The government needs dedicated, talented people — particularly now. Feds are already underpaid and underappreciated. On top of that, NASA has employees with unique skills that cannot be easily replaced. To subject them to another mandate and say, “Take it or leave it,” seems shortsighted and unnecessarily draconian." (Read the complete editorial here.) Do you believe the background checks required by HSPD-12 are a legitimate privacy concern?
