Ten years ago, public documents—everything from birth certificates to bankruptcy filings—were so inaccessible in public archives that they were as good as private. Now, public records are becoming widely accessible on the Internet. Is this an advance in public accountability or a retreat from privacy rights? Similarly, health insurance claims and hospital records are increasingly collected in networked databanks in efforts to reduce healthcare costs and improve medical care. But who controls this personal information? As it is now, what you tell your physician may wind up on your boss’s desk. A 1995 University of Illinois study found that 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies acknowledged using individual health records “in making employment-related decisions,” nearly always without informing the employees.

As we adjust to living in this fishbowl called the information age we clearly have to develop new public policies and reconsider old ones. Privacy, after all, is essential for a functioning democracy. “Without the power to decide when to remain private and when to ‘go public,’ we cannot exercise many other basic freedoms,” writes Alan F. Westin in an essay, “Privacy Rights and Responsibilities in the Next Era of the Information Age,” published by the Aspen Institute. “If we are ‘switched on’ without our knowledge or consent, we have lost our fundamental constitutional rights to decide when and with whom we speak, publish, worship and associate.”

Help is on the way from the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB), an operating unit of the National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C. CSTB was established in 1986 to provide independent advice to the federal government on technical and public policy issues relating to computers and communication. Composed of an interdisciplinary group of experts—including a revolving mix of policy specialists, sociologists, lawyers, business executives, economists, scientists and engineers—CSTB demystifies information technology and relates it to national and everyday concerns. The board’s findings and recommendations help inform public discussions and policy debates on Capitol Hill. Particularly influential have been its series of reports on the Internet, which provided justification for government investments, beginning in the early 1990s, and guided planning in both public and private sectors for the Internet’s commercialization.

Now, to examine web-related privacy issues, CSTB has established a Committee on Privacy and the Information Age, which is co-chaired by Lloyd Cutler, the former White House Counsel to Presidents Clinton and Carter and Judge William Webster, the former FBI and CIA director. It’s work will include holding several public meetings to hear from scores of experts and interested parties. The committee welcomes comments; visit www.cstb-privacy.org for information on how to contribute.

Committee members have already begun to develop guidelines for their work, which include assessing risks to personal information associated with information technology and examining the tradeoffs (e.g., between more personalized marketing and more monitoring of personal buying patterns) involved in the collection and use of personal information.

The committee’s first meeting was in June 2002, with other meetings scheduled for the fall and winter 2002-2003. This $1-million project is jointly supported by AT&T Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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