Paranoid' or justified : e-government and privacy

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Electronic government holds the promises of enabling government to become moreefficient in the delivery of services to the public. E-government would ultimately meanthat government departments would not work in isolation from each other. The electronicenvironment would mean that databases would be linked and that information would beshared across all levels of government.There are a number of issues that are presently, and will increasingly in the futureimpact on the success of e-government. The paradox for e-government is that while thissharing of information, paints a picture of an ideal state of affairs, that would benefit bothcitizen and state, there could be enormous effects on privacy. These are the ability forgovernment to compile comprehensive profiles on citizens without their knowledge orconsent. Another impact on privacy is that wrong information can be linked to the wrongperson thereby impacting on the identity of an individual. Data protection and recordmanagement policies and legislation are necessary to protect personal data andinformation.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University