Modern information and communication technologies are pervasive and have opened the world to new levels of communication and interaction between people. In the process our way of thinking and living has changed due to the impact of the new technologies. There are billions of bytes of data available in many forms and formats on the Internet. Much of the data is aggregate or anonymous but there is also a plethora of personal data now available online. We all exchange personal information in one form or another. Most of us try hard to ensure our personal details do not get into the wrong hands. Yet, the fact is that with so much information now roaming through cyberspace and across the networks of the world, the possibilities of breaches are stronger than ever.
Privacy and Data Protections laws are in place in many jurisdictions around the world. The essential remit of these organizations are to educate individuals on the importance of privacy, apply the basic privacy principles, ensure access to personal information from individuals, deal with complaints if individuals are denied access to personal documents and to inform the public on how to protect their personal information.
The question when dealing with a specific issue of openness (freedom of information laws) versus privacy laws is: which is the most important value in that instance? In an ideal world both would be considered equally important. However, such is not the case. There are tensions between public officials who have developed a policy declaring that government information be open to the public, as part of the philosophy that says citizens have "the right to know." Privacy comes from the opposite angle, allowing access to individuals seeking their own personal information lodged in a government department, agency or database. Privacy advocates in many jurisdictions, in countries around the world that have these laws, will argue that the protection of the personal information of individuals is paramount. Part of the answer to this conundrum is to redact personal information of individuals when requests are made under freedom of information laws.
However, despite the ideals incorporated in these two laws there are a legion of issues. FOI and privacy laws have existed now for over four decades in the USA and around the world. At this stage of existence of these laws, it has become apparent that privacy laws are of major importance to citizens.
As citizens we accept certain limits of the use of our personal information. We freely give out our names, addresses and phone numbers when needed for transactions such as obtaining credit cards, signing up for services, purchasing items, and a host of other reasons. These transactions are kept within the confines of a government or private sector organization and the individual's details are not necessarily readily accessible to others. But there are even exceptions to this, where organizations in both the public and private sectors have been careless with people's personal details which can end up in the public domain where they should not be.
However, in countries where there are strong privacy laws, there are Privacy Commissioners Offices that oversee these issues. When there are serious privacy breaches these Offices conduct investigations as to how such large (or even small) amounts of personal information of individuals emerged into the public domain. Such investigations, when concluded, lay out the problems and the issues arising as to how such information needs to be protected and measures put in place to prevent leakages in future. These investigations always make recommendations on how to remedy any breaches. Recommendations are made by the privacy officials and released to the public. The offenders are required to uphold them. Another positive side effect of these actions is the idea that this assures the citizen at large that governments are concerned about breaches of their individual privacy.
Many governments around the world do put up the names of many of their officials on their web sites. For example, on the Canada site (http://canada.gc.ca) there is a directory of government officials on the main page. One can click on and scroll down the list of employee names. However, all that is revealed is the individual's name, title and office number and in some case the email address. This is transparency at its best as it allows an outsider to contact officials or employees but does not cross their public life to their personal life. This is an important distinction. Public employees are identified only in their public capacity but not their private lives. Even a public employee's salary is not given in the exact amount but only as a range for the particular position held.
Thus, it is evident that freedom of information laws are critical in a society, as such laws allow access to the practices of governments and give access to wide amounts of information that can be valuable to individuals and groups alike. Privacy laws allow the individual to know what personal information the government has on them and gives not only the right of access but the ability to expunge data in their individual file. Both freedom of information and privacy laws encompass important values. Information laws act as a catalyst to share information and knowledge.
