Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens

A report titled “Records, Computers and the Rights of Citizens” was published by the Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare in July of 1973.

The Committee's report began with a brief review of the historical development of records and record-keeping, noting the different origins of administrative, statistical, and intelligence records, and the different traditions and practices that have grown up around them. It observed that the application of computers to record-keeping had challenged traditional constraints on record-keeping practices.

The report then explored some of the consequences of these changes and assesses their potential for adverse effect on individuals, organizations, and the society as a whole. It concluded that the net effect of computerization is that it is becoming much easier for record-keeping systems to affect people than for people to affect record-keeping systems.

The Report proposed a federal Code of Fair Information Practices for all computer systems.