The Privacy Act is a very important, technology-neutral law that helps ensure accountability and transparency when personal information is collected by government agencies. The goal is not to limit the use of technology; it is to help ensure that new technology is used in a way to protect democratic values.
Social media, such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, offer exciting new opportunities for public participation in government. At the same time, these services collect detailed personal information from users, including viewing habits, IP addresses, and location. Americans should not lose Privacy Act protections simply because the federal government acquires personal information indirectly through third-party vendors.
EPIC recommends that any social network service collecting information on behalf of a federal agency comply with all Privacy Act obligations.
Comments (2)
I'd agree as long as this doesn't mean that any social network service must then comply with a Freedom of Information Act request to reveal things that were not delivered to government agencies. Or perhaps a better way would be to make sure that any information that the government received from one of these services was also made available through a FOIA request.
Any information collected should be made available at all times to the user that the info was collected on without all of the long fine print documents which confuse things! It should just state...we have this info on you it was or is provided to here?...here is what we have...