Reconciling Information Privacy and Information Access in a Globalized Technology Society

Government agencies collect and disseminate data that bear on the most important issues of public interest. Advances in information technology, particularly the Internet, have created a globalized technology society and multiplied the tension between demands for ever more comprehensive databases and demands for the shelter of privacy. In reconciling information privacy and information access, agencies must address a host of difficult problems. These include providing access to information while protecting confidentiality, coping with health information databases, and ensuring consistency with international standards. The policies of agencies are determined by what is right for them to do, what works for them, and what they are required to do by law. They must interpret and respect the ethical imperatives of democratic accountability, constitutional empowerment, individual autonomy, and information justice. In managing confidentiality and data-access functions, agencies have two basic tools: techniques for disclosure limitation through restricted data and administrative procedures through restricted access.