Information Policy: Regulations & Guidelines

• Information policy encompasses the role of information in society
• Policy includes directives intended to shape decisions and actions
• Policies involve guidelines to regulate participation
• Policies refer to political laws or regulations, or to local rules and practices

Information Policy Explained

• Information policy includes laws, regulations, and policies that influence the creation, use, storage, access, communication, and dissemination of information
• This policy encompasses decision-making practices with society-wide efforts
• It guides the oversight and management of the information life-cycle involving production, collection, distribution, retrieval, and retirement of information
• Information policy embraces access to and the use of information
• Policies form a framework impacting an individual in a society and the choices it makes
• Information policy involves information creation, processing, flows, access, and use
• Information policy can provide coordination, and a long-term approach by:
  • Issues of technological access by all
  • Creation and support for freely available information resources
  • Training in how to find, use, and communicate information
• Information policy identifies, delivers, and manages internal and external information resources needed by employees to perform their jobs efficiently and meet business goals
• Information policy is key for information societies
• Nations transitioning from industrialism to post-industrialism see information issues become increasingly critical
• Daniel Bell states information is of higher value than raw muscle power or energy
• Societies are generally based on information with a growing dependency on computerized information

History of Information Policy

• Information policy is developed to the present day and has been growing since 1789
• The executive branch gathers data through the census every ten years
• The legislature can obtain information through investigations; not explicit in the Constitution, but derived from 17th-century parliamentary traditions
• Late 18th-century information policy focused on preventing governmental abuse of power
• The Bill of Rights guarantees free speech, restricting prior restraint

Policy and Commerce

• The Constitution prohibits states from interfering with contracts, strengthening property rights, including informational property rights
• This is the bases for services that sell information to aid in decision-making
• Some of these services include stock quotes, credit information, and airline reservation systems
• The Constitution authorizes patents and copyrights promoting information creation
• Restrictions on releasing transaction information were regulated by market forces, acknowledging confidentiality

Information Policy Today

• Administrative agencies obtain information through investigations, required reports, and inspections
• Regulatory agencies such as the ICC were granted powers to investigate within their authority starting in 1887
• Checks on investigatory powers were initially put in place for agencies like the Federal Trade Commission in the 1920s, but later reversed court decisions
• Current administrative agencies have the same powers to investigate as the legislature to set administrative policy within their mandates ensuring law compliance
• Laws exist for information prohibition on insider information in stock trades and variables in employment decisions that shouldn't be used like race, creed, sex, age or anything else
• Databases must purge "can not use" criteria and negative credit information after seven years
• Today’s data gathering approach is an ad hoc combination of property rights, required disclosures, information rights, and restrictions
• Political economic performance is strongly dependent on a suitable information policy for information technology use

Privacy, Confidentiality and Individual Rights

• Privacy is the right to be left alone and it is a fundamental human right
• Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to control the communication of their personal data
• You have the right to control what happens to your personal information

Information Privacy

• Information privacy stops information about individuals from becoming known without their consent, relating also to personal information, which is stored on computer systems
• Maintaining information privacy applies to medical, financial, criminal, and political records including business data
• Information privacy is freedom from interference or intrusion so the right to be let alone
• There is a right to have some control over how personal information is collected and used

Confidentiality

• Confidential information has restrictions on its communication or dissemination
• The three principles to note for confidentiality are:
  • The information must be confidential and not accessible to others
  • The information must not be useless or insignificant
  • The confidant reasonably understood the information was confidential

Individual Rights

• Individual rights are principles held by a single person
• Individual rights can be negative where a person is compelled to not act on a certain principle, or can be positive where a person may act in a certain capacity if they want

Explore information policy, including laws and regulations influencing information creation, use and access. Understand how policies shape decisions and regulate participation in society through guidelines. Learn about the oversight and management of information.