Information Policy PDF - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 Information Policy  What is Information Policy? What is Policy ? It is a word often used in a very general way. What is encompassed by this term, and how might we apply it to the role of information in society? policy is ―directives intended to shape decisio...

CHAPTER 8 Information Policy  What is Information Policy? What is Policy ? It is a word often used in a very general way. What is encompassed by this term, and how might we apply it to the role of information in society? policy is ―directives intended to shape decisions and actions of individuals, organizations, and government agencies. it means simply ―guidelines to regulate participation. a more general definition by stating that ―policy typically refers to political laws or regulations, yet can also mean a rule or practice followed more locally. 1/10/2025 2  What is Information Policy? Information policy is the set of all public laws, regulations and policies that encourage, discourage, or regulate the creation, use, storage, access, and communication and dissemination of information. It thus encompasses any other decision-making practice with society-wide constitutive efforts that involve the flow of information and how it is processed. Information Policy is a misnomer; which is a set of interrelated principles, laws, guidelines, rules, regulations, and procedures guiding the oversight and management of the information life-cycle: the production, collection, distribution/dissemination, retrieval, and retirement of information. ✓ Information policy also embraces access to, and use of, information. ✓ Collectively, policies form a framework that “profoundly affect(s) the manner in which an individual in a society indeed a society itself makes political, economic, and social choices” ✓ Information policy is comprised of laws, regulations, and doctrinal positions – and other decision making and practices with society-wide constitutive effects –involving information creation, processing, flows, access, and use. 1/10/2025 3  What is Information Policy? Information policy can provide a consistent, coordinated, long- term strategic approach: – to issues of technological access by all; creation and support for freely available information resources; and – training in how to effectively find, use, and communicate information. An information policy is concerned with identifying, delivering, and managing internal and external information resources needed by employees at all levels of the organization to perform their jobs as competently and efficiently as possible in order to meet business objectives. 1/10/2025 4  What is Information Policy? Information policy is the central problem for information societies. As nations make the transition from industrialism to post- industrialism, information issues become increasingly critical. According to sociologist Daniel Bell, "what counts now is not raw muscle power or energy but information“. While all societies have been to some extent based on information, information societies are almost wholly dependent on computerized information. 1/10/2025 5  History of Information Policy To formulate an appropriate information policy let us start by quickly reviewing the development of information policy up to the present. The one regular data-gathering function of the executive that has been explicitly stipulated in the Constitution is the census every ten years. For the purposes of formulating law, the legislature has the power to obtain information through investigations. This power was not made explicit in the Constitution, but was implicitly assumed in keeping with parliamentary traditions established in the 17th century. The primary concern in information policy at the end of the 18th century as expressed in the Bill of Rights was to prevent possible abuses of government power. The First guarantees free speech, which restricts prior restraint. 1/10/2025 6  History of Information Policy… The constitution in prohibiting the states from interfering with contracts greatly strengthened property rights, which includes informational property rights. These rights are the bases for many current services that sell information to aid in decision making. Two of the oldest such services are stock quotes and credit information. A more recent example is airline reservation systems. The Constitution further promoted information creation in authorizing a federal system of intellectual property, patents and copyrights. Privacy was a private not a public concern. For example, as there were no models for using data from market transactions and as transactions data was costly both to acquire and to process, there was no need for a specific Constitutional provision for privacy. Restrictions on the release of transactions information were regulated by market forces such as the general acknowledgment that confidentiality was a desirable quality of a transaction. 1/10/2025 7  History of Information Policy… The growth of information policy since 1789 has been an ad hoc reaction to events. One example has been the evolution of administrative agencies' power to obtain information through investigations, required reports and inspections. With the creation of regulatory agencies, starting with the ICC in 1887, the legislature granted these agencies broad powers to investigate within the mandate of their authority. The investigatory power of regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission was initially checked in the 1920s by court interpretations, but subsequent court decisions reversed these decisions. In current society administrative agencies have, in order to set administrative policy within their mandates, the same powers to investigate as the legislature. To ensure compliance with the law, administrative agencies have broad powers to impose required reports. 1/10/2025 8  History of Information Policy… A final aspect of information policy is a ``can not use'' category for certain information. Two examples of information classified in this way are insiders information in stock trades and prohibition on the use of race, creed, sex, age and other variables in employment decisions. In databases this ``can not use'' criterion means that certain data must be purged from the database. Much negative credit information must be purged after seven years. The growth of information policy, then, has been a piecemeal response to particular political problems. Information policy, today, is an ad hoc collection of property rights, required disclosures, information rights, and restrictions. Improving political economic performance is strongly dependent on having an information policy appropriate for the information technology. 1/10/2025 9  Privacy, Confidentially and Individual Rights What is privacy? Privacy can simply be defined as the right to be left alone. 'It is a comprehensive right and it is the right most valued by a free people. It is a fundamental human right. Privacy may be defined as the claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. Privacy is your right to control what happens with personal information about you. 1/10/2025 10  Privacy, Confidentially and Individual Rights What is information privacy? – Information privacy is the ability of an individual or group to stop information about themselves from becoming known to people other than those they choose to give the information to. – Information privacy is the privacy of personal information and usually relates to personal data stored on computer systems. – The need to maintain information privacy is applicable to collected personal information, such as medical records, financial data, criminal records, political records, business related information or website data. – Information privacy is also known as data privacy. Broadly speaking, privacy is the right to be let alone, or freedom from interference or intrusion. – Information privacy is the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used. 1/10/2025 11  Privacy, Confidentially and Individual Rights Confidentiality – Confidential information is any information with restrictions placed on the communication or dissemination of that information. – There are three principles to be applied in assessing whether information given is to be treated as confidential; a) The information must be confidential. Once the information is in the public domain and is generally accessible to others, it is no longer confidential. b) The information must not be useless or insignificant. c) The information must have been given in circumstances where the confidant must reasonably have understood that what was said was confidential. 1/10/2025 12  Privacy, Confidentially and Individual Rights Individual rights are those principles that are held by a single person rather than an entire group. According to political scientists, individual rights can either be negative or positive. This means that a negative right allows the person to not act on a certain principle, while a positive right means that a person may act in a certain capacity if they want. 1/10/2025 13 14