Washington, D.C. - Vice President Gore's new Internet privacy proposal ignores the risk to individual liberties posed by overzealous government investigators, privacy advocates warned Friday.

"By focusing exclusively on the private sector, the Administration overlooks one of the greatest threats to Net privacy -- Big Brother," said John Aravosis, an Internet privacy expert with Wired Strategies in Washington, D.C.

In his Friday proposal , the Vice President called for stricter regulation of private sector electronic databases as they pertain to young children, and new laws to deter electronic identity theft.

But in view of the Administration's willingness to violate federal electronic privacy law in the Timothy McVeigh AOL privacy case, many are concerned that Vice President Gore's silence on federal excesses may create a tacit loophole for government investigators wanting to use the Internet to spy on American citizens.

"In the McVeigh case, the Administration illegally used an America Online database to end the career of a decorated 18-year Navy veteran. The Vice President has yet to repudiate the Administration's actions in this case," said John Aravosis, who served as a senior adviser to McVeigh during the case.

In the high-profile case, US Navy investigators contacted America Online in violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to obtain confidential information on Master Chief McVeigh, leading them to conclude that he was gay.

In January of this year, federal judge Stanley Sporkin ruled that in using the Internet to snoop on McVeigh, the Navy violated ECPA. "In these days of 'big brother,'" Sporkin wrote, "where through technology and otherwise the privacy interests of individuals from all walks of life are being ignored or marginalized, it is imperative that statutes explicitly protecting these rights be strictly observed….(t)his court finds that the Navy has gone too far."

"A federal judge found the Administration guilty of violating a US citizen's privacy on the Internet. Yet the Defense Department continues to say it did nothing wrong, and would do it again. Why is the Vice President silent on the threat to online privacy posed by his own federal investigators?", asked Aravosis.

"If the Administration continues to remain silent, they're giving a green light to the IRS, FBI and CIA to use the Internet to spy on American citizens. If the Administration really cares about online privacy, they shouldn't carve out a self-serving loophole for Big Brother," Aravosis said.

Wired Strategies (http://www.wiredstrategies.com) is a political Internet consulting firm specializing in public policy Internet strategies for the government, nonprofit and private sectors. Wired Strategies' clients include Master Chief Timothy R. McVeigh (of the AOL/US Navy privacy case), the US Department of Health and Human Services, the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Georgetown University. Prior to forming Wired Strategies, John Aravosis was the online lobbyist at the Children's Defense Fund, and also worked in the US Senate and the World Bank. Aravosis has a law degree and Masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown (1989).