Options for Promoting Privacy on the National Information Infrastructure

Citation
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Health and Human Services Privacy Committee, Options for Promoting Privacy on the National Information Infrastructure (Apr. 1997) (full-text).

Overview
This Options Paper explores the growing public concern about personal information privacy. The paper describes the status of electronic data protection and fair information practices in the United States, beginning with a discussion of the Principles for providing and using personal information issued by the Information Infrastructure Task Force in 1995. It then provides an overview of new information technologies, which shows that personal information is currently collected, shared, aggregated, and disseminated at a rate and to a degree unthinkable just a few years ago. Government is no longer the sole possessor of extensive amounts of personal information about U.S. citizens; in recent years the acquisition of personal information by the private sector has increased dramatically.