I&#x27;m looking at this from a more practical angle.  Government employees are in a position of trust because you cannot choose not to deal with them, and sometimes are backed up with force of arms (like our friendly policeman).  Besides, traditionally, because of the sheer expense, large databases with potential for abuse would belong to governmental entities.  Things like Facebook and Google are upstarts, the legislative hasn&#x27;t had time to deal with those yet in any way.  That&#x27;s why I&#x27;m saying that I&#x27;m surprised that there isn&#x27;t a law.<p>The problem must have come up before.  Someone asking about a competitor&#x27;s tax records because the sister-in-law works at the IRS, arrest records of a political competitor becoming public the week before election, that sort of thing.<p>Perhaps a suitable statute is on the books but the prosecution picked the CFAA instead, hoping the case would get thrown out or go to revision and then get thrown out.  It&#x27;s within the realm of possibilities.