Citation
Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre Mulligan. "Privacy Decision Making in Administrative Agencies". Chicago Law Review, 75(1):75, January 2008.

Abstract
Administrative agencies increasingly rely on technology to promote the substantive goals they are charged to pursue. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has prioritized digitized personal health data as a means for improving patient safety and reducing bureaucratic costs. The Department of Justice hosts electronic databases that pool information between agencies to facilitate national law enforcement in ways previously unimaginable. The Departments of Defense and Education mine digital information to effect goals as diverse as human resources management; service improvement; fraud, waste, and abuse control; and detection of terrorist activity.

The use of technology to achieve the principal purposes set forth in agency enabling statutes—health, security or education, for example—has significant consequences for other public goals. Specifically, the digital collection of personally identifiable information renders that data subject to the immense search and aggregation power of technology systems, increases the capacity for repurposing and reuse, and provides increasingly attractive targets to hackers bent on misuse, raising serious concerns about a surveillance capacity that can flood personal privacy and put personal security at risk.

The digitization of administration, then, raises the question how to ensure that decisions about the use of technology in public management reflect not only the governance goals with which particular administrators are charged specifically, but also universal concerns of privacy untethered to direct agency mandates.

Electronic downloads

• SSRN-id1104728-1.pdf · application/force-download · 283 kbytes

Citation formats

• HTML

  Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre Mulligan. <a
  href="http://www.truststc.org/pubs/258.html">Privacy
  Decision Making in Administrative Agencies</a>,
  <i>Chicago Law Review</i>, 75(1):75, January
  2008.

• Plain text

  Kenneth A. Bamberger, Deirdre Mulligan. "Privacy Decision
  Making in Administrative Agencies". Chicago Law
  Review, 75(1):75, January 2008.

• BibTeX

  @article{BambergerMulligan08_PrivacyDecisionMakingInAdministrativeAgencies,
      author = {Kenneth A. Bamberger and Deirdre Mulligan},
      title = {Privacy Decision Making in Administrative Agencies},
      journal = {Chicago Law Review},
      volume = {75},
      number = {1},
      pages = {75},
      month = {January},
      year = {2008},
      abstract = {Administrative agencies increasingly rely on
                technology to promote the substantive goals they
                are charged to pursue. The U.S. Department of
                Health and Human Services has prioritized
                digitized personal health data as a means for
                improving patient safety and reducing bureaucratic
                costs. The Department of Justice hosts electronic
                databases that pool information between agencies
                to facilitate national law enforcement in ways
                previously unimaginable. The Departments of
                Defense and Education mine digital information to
                effect goals as diverse as human resources
                management; service improvement; fraud, waste, and
                abuse control; and detection of terrorist
                activity. 
  The use of technology to achieve the
                principal purposes set forth in agency enabling
                statutes—health, security or education, for
                example—has significant consequences for other
                public goals. Specifically, the digital collection
                of personally identifiable information renders
                that data subject to the immense search and
                aggregation power of technology systems, increases
                the capacity for repurposing and reuse, and
                provides increasingly attractive targets to
                hackers bent on misuse, raising serious concerns
                about a surveillance capacity that can flood
                personal privacy and put personal security at
                risk. 
  The digitization of administration, then,
                raises the question how to ensure that decisions
                about the use of technology in public management
                reflect not only the governance goals with which
                particular administrators are charged
                specifically, but also universal concerns of
                privacy untethered to direct agency mandates.},
      URL = {http://www.truststc.org/pubs/258.html}
  }
  

Posted by Christopher Brooks on 9 Jul 2007.
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