Government Executive - Authors - Anne A. Armstrong

Managing TechnologyThe Privacy DebateMonitoring of Web site users has sparked calls for tougher privacy rules.

Anne A. Armstrong — Wed, 01 Nov 2000 00:00:00 -0500

For federal executives, the rules used to be pretty well spelled out. The Privacy Act has been in place since 1974, and a host of other legislation covers access to information, security, matching records and the basics of what is a record. Web sites spell out their privacy rules and, except where law enforcement or national security is involved, the rules are clear.

However, technology is not static. The bar-the level of what technology makes possible-keeps moving into uncharted and unlegislated territory. One example of new territory is where government has been asked to behave more like a business. A consequence of that new behavior is that the lines between business and government sometimes become blurred.

Citizens often don't distinguish among levels of government or among different parts of any particular organization. Now it may be difficult even to tell what is government. Does a citizen who chooses to pay a ticket online know where business starts and government stops? What protections does a citizen have for the information that is entered into a private business Web site acting as an agent or middleman for government? Some of the business models for these services depend on the sale or provision of the data collected, such as when information on drivers' licenses is provided to insurance companies.

One emerging stan- dard requires customers to "opt in" and approve any sale or distribution of their personal information. As an indication of how complex this disclosure can be, govWorks.com revised its posted privacy policy in early September. The new version now spans more than 30 screens and spells out in detail the use of "cookies" and the sale of information to third parties. (Cookies are files placed on a Web user's hard drive by a Web site. They allow the Web site to track the user's use of the Web and any patterns of use-often without the user's knowledge.) Two other organizations, EzGov.com and niccommerce.com also have sites with lengthy descriptions. It is not yet clear whether the posting of such policies will be enough to calm concerns voiced by privacy advocacy groups. Perhaps because it is an election year, or perhaps because politicians have sensed a change of public attitude, a rush has ensued in Congress to enact new legislation to protect consumer privacy. The issue has sparked calls for the creation of a privacy czar and for government regulation of privacy on Web sites.

Dozens of bills addressing privacy in one form or another were introduced in this session of Congress. Passage of any bills before the break for the presidential election is a long shot; however, some congressional observers believe sentiment is growing to compromise by establishing a commission to study the issue.

In the midst of this extended debate about collecting and monitoring information from Web sites, several congressmen asked the General Accounting Office to study how federal sites are stacking up in the privacy arena. Two studies were released in September-one that assessed how well federal agencies are following rules requiring them to post their privacy policies and another that examined how federal sites have adopted the Federal Trade Commission's four fair information principles.

Commercial sites are supposed to follow these principles, but, technically, they do not apply to federal Web sites.

GAO reported near-perfect results on posting privacy policies with 69 out of 70 federal Web sites having a posted policy and 67 classified as "clearly labeled and easily accessed." This report shows a dramatic improvement over a similar study a year earlier, which counted only a third of federal Web sites displaying privacy policies.

A stickier situation, however, arises with the automatically collected information and with the use of cookies. The Office of Management and Budget has instructed agencies that they must disclose the use of cookies, but when GAO did its survey in April 2000, only 28 agencies out of 70 indicated whether they used them. Automatically collected electronic information-such as that in log files that tell the provider where the user is going on the site-provides useful data about what parts of the site are used most, but can also be interpreted as intrusive.

The second GAO study compared federal Web practices with those recommended by the FTC as its Fair Information Principles. The agencies scored much worse in this round, with only 3 percent of those polled using elements of all four principles (notice, choice, access and security).

OMB disputes even the notion of this second survey. The agency says federal Web sites are governed by the Privacy Act and OMB regulations, not FTC rules, which were designed for commercial sites. Agencies have been instructed to follow OMB rules. Sally Katzen, OMB's deputy director for management, compared the GAO summary statistics in this case "to a complaint that an apple lacks a thick, orange rind."

While Katzen's fine turn of phrase may skewer the effect of this report, a much larger question looms. Do federal privacy policies for Web sites represent the public's view of fair practice, or has technology moved the bar so that new policies and safeguards need to be developed?

Members of Congress have a finely tuned sense of public sentiment, especially when issues are heating up. The avalanche of privacy bills is a loud signal that it may be time to look once again at the policies that guide federal Web sites and to see if it is time for a tune-up.

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Missing the Boat

Anne A. Armstrong — Tue, 01 Aug 2000 00:00:00 -0400

letters@govexec.com

nintended consequences are a frightening side effect of the technology revolution. One consequence governments are struggling with is the digital divide-the disenfranchisement of rural and poor populations as governments deliver more and more services electronically.

Larry Irving, former administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at Commerce, might not have invented the term "digital divide," but he certainly popularized it. His agency started looking at the dramatic differences in access to telecommunications and the Internet in a 1995 study called "Falling Through the Net." By 1997, the words "digital divide" were added to the title as a much broader realization emerged of the huge difference in access to government services among those with computers and those without.

Growing Gap

It is not news that people with fewer economic resources or those who live far from large population centers have more difficulty getting access to government services. However, NTIA's study was among the first to document how large the gap was. "A low-income household in a rural area has less than a one in 30 chance of having Internet access at home," Irving said when the study was released in July 1999. "A rural black household has less than a one in 13 chance of having home Internet access." More troubling to Irving and other policy-makers is that the gap is widening.

As federal and local government began taking advantage of the Internet's efficiencies in delivering services, the disparity in access to computing and telecommunications threatened to cut off those who most needed help. The government's solution has been to seek help from the private sector. The digital divide has become one of the most common arenas for public/private partnerships.

Technology Alone

Throwing technology at the classrooms as part of the E-rate program-an administration plan that funds the purchase of telecommunications equipment and services through a universal tax on telecom-and other well-intended efforts prove that equipment alone is not the answer. Widgets with fancy or unneeded bells and whistles in the public domain offer few results unless teachers and students are trained and prepared to use them.

The traditional solution has been to allow public access through the computers in the public libraries and to spend resources to enlarge their offerings. However, a large part of the target audience that digital divide solutions hope to reach either doesn't have easy access to libraries or doesn't frequent them. The digital divide solution must provide access where people spend time.

Community Outreach

One promising approach has been to create community technology centers where young people and adults can take classes or reserve computers for personal use at the center. Atlanta is using this approach, and the Clinton administration just funded a survey to study 100 similar community technology centers to find out what is working.

One of the first was the Gum Springs Computer Center in Fairfax, Va. Created last winter as a joint project by the Northern Virginia Technology Council and Gen. Colin Powell's America's Promise program, the project has the support of the YMCA, the Steve and Jean Case Foundation and 21 corporations. Fairfax County supplied space and a full-time director. AmeriCorps, a volunteer service organization, provided five full-time workers to teach and mentor students.

Bobbie Kilberg, president of the Northern Virginia Technology Center, says the project serves as a model for new efforts. "We stayed flexible as we were working out the project design and listened to our advisers, and we got buy-in from the corporate sponsors and not just a donation," she says. "For some of the smaller companies, this was a chance to make a real contribution to improving our world. But it was not just about money. It was about getting all the players involved in creating a solution."

The PowerUp initiative, launched in November 1999, with the support of nonprofit organizations, major corporations and federal agencies, builds on similar approaches. PowerUp now has plans for more than 250 community technology sites, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to install centers in public housing developments. The availability of technology, the mentoring from AmeriCorps volunteers and the commitment of the industry partners tie the efforts together.

In another model, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government is installing about 3,500 kiosks in urban areas. The General Services Administration and a company called Urban Cool Networks will use the kiosks to connect via broadband networks to the Urban Cool Web site, which will offer such services as providing passport applications and tax forms.

The common denominator in all these models is that all sides of the services delivery equation stand to gain. If the digital divide is to be turned into a digital opportunity, then both government organizations and corporations must get something out of the partnership. Too often, agencies will only ask for a donation of computers or Internet accounts to bridge their service-delivery gap. If their industry partners see the venture as charity, then it will be a one-time donation. But if they see it as a commitment to solving a problem, it is likely to generate something far more valuable-real involvement from businesspeople who want to serve and expand their markets.

Anne A. Armstrong is president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, a private, state-funded organization that fosters the growth of technology
businesses in the commonwealth.

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Building E-Partnerships

Anne A. Armstrong — Mon, 01 May 2000 00:00:00 -0400

letters@govexec.com

he Internet, which transforms and refreshes itself several times a year, is redefining the ways that many public and private organizations work together. A good example of how quickly things are changing is the whole area of e-commerce on government Web sites.

The movement responds to citizens' demand that government deliver services as efficiently as banks or brokerages do. People want to get building permits, fishing licenses and drivers' licenses electronically and pay taxes online.

These sorts of e-government services are increasingly available at the state and local levels. But federal agencies are lagging, even though Vice President Al Gore's National Partnership for Reinventing Government has been singing the e-business chorus for years. They're now under pressure to do better: An executive memo from President Clinton in December requires agencies to transact business electronically by 2003.

States, cities and counties have taken the lead in developing the new models in part because they have been less burdened with large investments in legacy systems. Because state and local governments have had little money to finance experiments in service delivery, they have had to be innovative in funding expensive capital projects by sharing the costs or savings. Cities and counties unable to afford new traffic enforcement technology were more than willing to give private companies a share of the fees collected as a result of traffic cameras or parking meters installed and financed by the firms.

When governments began to examine how to finance electronic commerce sites, they quickly found ready customers in businesses that would rather pay a small fee than send a person to wait in line for needed records. Kansas created a system to do just that in the early 1990s. The Information Network of Kansas charged a subscriber fee of $75 per year and then tacked on a small document fee for each record obtained. The model worked well and generated enough money not only to pay for the Web site but also to make it a profit center for the state.

The National Information Consortium, of which Kansas was the first member, now operates Web companies in nearly a dozen states-including Nebraska, Georgia, Indiana and Virginia. This for-profit company enters into a contract with a state or local government for three to five years. The state often creates some type of intervening authority that administers the Web portal, and contracts the administration out to the NIC affiliate.

"The state decides it wants to have a robust, comprehensive network," says Dan Houlihan, general manager of the Virginia Information Providers Network, a subsidiary of the Kansas-based NIC. "The state decides on a public/private partnership and the partner then executes the vision of the state in creating the network. We charge user fees on business sectors that demand information from government and then have revenue to apply to other state projects such as a Web site for a small agency that may not have the potential for making money."

The model, though quite successful, is being challenged by major players entering the e-commerce world who see big business opportunities in citizens' interactions with government.

Michael Dell, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Dell Computer Corp., says only 1 percent of citizens' transactions with government are done online. It's easy to see the growth potential and why companies such as Oracle Corp., American Management Systems and others are interested in the market for this technology. The e-commerce engine developed to power large sites such as the automobile manufacturers' parts-buying Web site can also work with smaller government applications.

Private-sector developers have already shouldered much of the cost of development. Commercial entities offer to deliver a full-functioning e-commerce site at no cost to the government and instead charge a transaction fee that ranges from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent.

Among the recent entrants into the government Web site market are Atlanta-based Ezgov.com, New York-based GovWorks.com and a number of private-label offerings, such as Lockheed Martin's GovernLink. These companies offer to handle online payment of personal taxes, parking tickets or real estate taxes and, in some cases, provide access to government records or documents. The attraction for government jurisdictions is pretty obvious-for very little upfront cost, they can offer an electronic payment option to customers.

David Camp, vice president of marketing for GovWorks, says his company currently has more than 30 different government agencies participating and new ones signing up each day. "Our pricing structure is flexible. We can charge on a per-transaction basis or arrange a revenue sharing. We have just announced a relationship with AMS, which will strengthen our back-office capability. The reception so far has been universally positive. Government recognizes opportunities inherent in this technology," Camp says.

An even greater benefit is the savings the government agencies can achieve through productivity gains. It's difficult to pin organizations down on exactly how much they have saved by using e-commerce, but the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles estimates the cost of serving its customers has gone down 50 percent. More typical numbers are in the 20 percent to 30 percent range. Few organizations can afford to pass up such an offer-save big bucks at little or no cost. So why aren't these systems causing a stampede?

While not a stampede, jurisdictions of all sizes have shown a great deal of interest. But that comes with a real concern about fraud and outsourcing what some say are inherently governmental functions. That may be a harder position to attack on taxes than it is on parking tickets. Ezgov and GovWorks Inc. appear to be addressing at least a few of those concerns by adding well-known and respected individuals to their boards as a mark of their quality and respectability.

Some users object to the idea of paying a transaction fee, suggesting they are being charged twice for the same government service. Others are more than willing to cough up an extra dollar to avoid dealing with city hall or the DMV in person.

Certainly another issue is how increasing electronic interactions with government widens the gap between those who have access to computers and the convenience they provide and those who do not. One response is that the money saved by productivity gains through electronic transactions should be plowed back into offering access for all citizens.

Government partners, such as those that are members of the Kansas NIC family, worry that commercial firms will cherry-pick the high-volume sites and leave other, less profitable sites for governments to handle.

However, the market indicates that governments prefer to choose commercial companies to build their electronic business instead of trying to build it themselves. The market is changing so quickly, few governments can afford to build from scratch. Whether one buys the solution, selects a partner or goes the route of transaction fees is a choice not unlike buying or leasing a vehicle-it depends on how much you need to transport, how long you expect to keep it and how much money you have to spend.

Anne A. Armstrong is president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology, a private state-funded organization that fosters technology and technology businesses in the Commonwealth.

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