EUGENE–In a fitting message for the times, the University of Oregon’s final graduating class of the millennium will hear a warning from a nationally recognized "privacy watchdog" about the increasingly commercial and manipulative nature of the Internet.

Robert Ellis Smith, a national expert on privacy issues and publisher of the PRIVACY JOURNAL, will speak on the topic of access, privacy and the Internet in his address to the Class of 1999 on Saturday, June 12, during the UO’s 122nd spring commencement.

Approximately 4,051 spring-term degree candidates and fall- and winter-term UO graduates are eligible to participate in the spring ceremonies, which begin at 12:30 p.m. at Hayward Field,
1580 E. 15th Ave. In the event of rain, the commencement ceremony will be held indoors at McArthur Court, 1601 University St.

Campus parking will be limited and those attending are advised to arrive early. Free parking will be available in lots located at East 15th Avenue and Columbia Street, and East 14th Avenue and Kincaid Street, as well as at specially marked parking meters in a several-block radius of Hayward Field.

During the ceremony, the UO will announce the awarding of its highest commendation, an honorary doctorate, to Helmuth Rilling, the Oregon Bach Festival’s cofounder and artistic director for the past 30 years. Because Rilling’s international performance schedule prevents him from attending commencement, he will receive the degree at a special ceremony during the Oregon Bach Festival on Sunday, July 11, following an afternoon Hult Center concert. The honorary degree is only the third conferred by the UO in the past 53 years. The other two recipients were former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and Mark Hatfield, former U.S. senator and Oregon governor.

Smith is a journalist who uses his training as an attorney to report on the individual’s right to privacy. Since 1974, he has published the PRIVACY JOURNAL, a monthly newsletter on privacy in a computer age, based in Providence. R.I.

Smith is a frequent speaker, writer and congressional witness on privacy issues and compiled a clearinghouse of information on the subject including computer data banks, credit and medical records, the Internet, electronic surveillance, the law of privacy, and physical and psychological privacy.

In his address, "Click on Privacy," Smith will discuss the shift from information to commercialism as well as some of the threats to personal privacy on the Internet.

"What developed as a medium for unfettered communications just six or seven years ago has quickly become predominantly a medium for sales and entertainment. The same thing happened to the telephone, to radio, to television, and in the 1990s, to newspapers," says Smith. "But unlike the other mediums, this is a place where the users create the ethic and have the capability, when acting in unison, to change its direction. By doing this, we may be able to exert some control over the invasions of privacy that have come with the Internet."

"Robert Ellis Smith is an impressive journalist and legal mind who understands the complexities of the Internet and can speak with eloquence about the potential and pitfalls it presents to our graduates as they enter a new and changing world," says UO President Dave Frohnmayer. "We are honored to have someone with his insight and foresight as this year’s commencement speaker."

Smith, 58, is the author of "Our Vanishing Privacy;" "The Law of Privacy Explained;" "Privacy: How to Protect What’s Left of it;" "Workrights," a book describing individual rights in the work place; and "The Big Brother Book of Lists."

The PRIVACY JOURNAL also publishes "Compilation of State and Federal Privacy Laws," "Celebrities and Privacy" and "War Stories," a collection of anecdotes on privacy invasions.

The New York Times said Smith "sounds the alarm about maintaining freedom and privacy in the computer age" and called him "a principled critic." The PRIVACY JOURNAL is "a privacy watchdog," according to Time magazine, and "the paper of record for lawyers and others interested in privacy rights," according to U.S. News & World Report.

Smith has been asked to write the definitive statement on privacy in the last two editions of The World Book Encyclopedia. He appeared on major television network morning news programs, as well as "Face the Nation," "Nightline" and National Public Radio’s "All Things Considered." He also is a regular commentator on American Public Radio’s "Marketplace."

From 1970 to 1973, Smith was the assistant director of the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Previously, he spent nine years as a news reporter and editor with the Detroit Free Press, Trenton Times, The Southern Courier and Newsday.

In 1997, Vice President Al Gore named him to the Civil Liberties Panel of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. He served on the District of Columbia Human Rights Commission until 1986. In 1996, the governor of Rhode Island appointed him vice chair of the Coastal Resources Management Council, which protects the 400 miles of Rhode Island coastline.

A 1962 graduate of Harvard College, Smith received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1976.

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