Topeka — E-mails are like postcards -- anybody can read them, Rep. Jim Morrison says.
With a few well-placed keystrokes, Jim Morrison says he can read your e-mail at work.
And with hardly any trouble at all, he can tap just about any computer in state government.
He can find out who's on welfare and why. He can surf through patient records at the Kansas University Medical School. He can get Social Security numbers from driver's-license and voter-registration data bases.
Read the governor's e-mail? No problem.
"I can teach you how to do it in 20 minutes," Morrison said Thursday during a Special Committee on Judiciary meeting on privacy issues involving computers.
Morrison, a Republican state representative from Colby, is the Legislature's undisputed expert on technology. He wants state government to start encrypting state-held information that's meant to be private.
Encrypted -- or, scrambled -- information, he said, could still flow within and between state agencies but would be useless to hackers.
Morrison also said government has an obligation to show its citizens how to protect their privacy.
"I don't want to put government in charge of ensuring my privacy -- that's my responsibility, no one else's," he said. "But government does have an obligation to encourage privacy."
No one, Morrison said, would send another person sensitive information on a postcard because anyone could read it. Instead, they would use an envelope.
"Today, whether you realize it or not, your e-mail is on a postcard," Morrison said. "I'm saying government has an obligation to show you how to use an envelope."
Morrison said he's putting together several proposals for next year's Legislature.
Though committee members said they were alarmed by Morrison's presentation, few appeared ready to expand the government's role.
"I certainly appreciate what we heard here today, but I'd hate to see government get too deeply involved in passing laws on the Internet or requiring people to protect themselves," said Sen. John Vratil, R-Overland Park. "There may be a role (for government) in the dissemination of information on privacy issues, but I don't know how much support there'd be for passing laws requiring one thing or another."
Sen. Paul Feleciano, D-Wichita, said he expects next year's Legislature to sanction a task force on privacy issues.
"The way these issues are shaping up, I think we can get the private sector involved in this," Feleciano said.
The committee also heard Det. Ed McGillivray and Sgt. Paul Klahn, both of the Olathe Police Department, describe how pedophiles exchange child pornography on the Internet and use "chat rooms" to lure unsuspecting children -- adolescent girls, mostly -- into sexual liaisons.
Klahn and McGillivray proposed:
- Allowing law enforcement officials to "seize" the computer equipment used in crimes involving computers.
"If you're caught selling drugs, law enforcement can seize your car," McGillivray said. "If you're caught using your computer to steal someone's identity or download child pornography, we have to give you back your computer."
- Expanding the length of time law enforcement officials have to search files on a confiscated computer.
- Adding e-mail to state laws defining telephone harassment.
- Allowing law-enforcement officials to use "chat rooms" to catch pedophiles.
-- Dave Ranney's phone message number is 832-7222. His e-mail is dranney@ljworld.com.
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