Usefulness of privacy impact assessment as a polic Essays - Law

Usefulness of privacy impact assessment as a policy tool Student Name: Institutional Affiliation: Course: Date: Introduction Privacy is a wider concept that focuses on the rights of individuals to be upheld. Privacy impact assessment is an examination of how individually identifiable information is gathered, used, shared and stored. It is also a process that assists organizations detect and reduce project privacy risks. A good privacy impact assessment will be applied across a project entire lifecycle with the aid of pre-existing project management processes. They also allow organizations thoroughly and systematically analyses how specific systems or modules shall affect involved persons privacy. Within the E-Government Act of 2002, all federal agencies are mandated to carry out privacy impact assessments for government systems and programs that gather online personal information. The aim of privacy impact assessment is to showcase that system owners and program managers have incorporated privacy concerns consciously throughout organizational operational processes. PIAs enable st akeholders to effectively and clearly communicate regarding how information is handled plus how privacy concerns are handled and information protected. Contents of a privacy impact assessment A privacy impact assessment outlines what individually identifiable information is gathered and elucidates how such information is maintained, protected, used or shared ( Wright, 2012) . A privacy impact assessment must identify: The vulnerabilities and impact of gathering, maintaining and distributing personally identifiable information. Whether the information gathered is in compliance with privacy based regulatory and legal compliance requirements. Avenues and approaches for persons to give consent for collection of their personally identifiable information. Safeguards and procedures for handling information to prevent any possible unforeseen privacy concerns. Integrate the results within the project plan Privacy impact assessments are applied in detecting possible privacy related risks of redesigned or new federal government systems or services. They also play a role in reducing or doing away with such risk to a level that s acceptable. Practically every government agency as outlined in section 3 of the privacy Act together with society members as well as any other affiliate of these corporations should carry out privacy impact assessment for redesigned or new services and programs that exhibit privacy concerns. Ideally, PIAs audit how government agencies safeguard personal information during collection, use, storage, disclosure and destruction. They serve to establish a privacy sensitive culture within agencies of the government. Whether or not privacy impact assessment provide useful information Now more than in the past, information and data are among critical tools in combating crime as well as administering justice. Every day, major decisions regarding detainment, arrest, sentencing and adjudication of justice are founded on information that is gathered, accessed, shared as well as collated with other types and pieces of information. Privacy impact assessment is simply an antidote to privacy breaches by business processes within the private and public sector as well as rapidly dynamic information technologies ravages t privacy advocates and oversight agencies. PIAs provide lawmakers with great information to guide them in the law making process. Laws can be formulated basing on the severity of the impact. Privacy advocates also benefit a lot from the information provided by privacy impact assessment reports such that basing on the possible privacy intrusion loopholes, they can put in place to ensure that such is averted. PIAs information aids such stakeholders answer and explain questions regarding possible governance structures, information flows, legislation, technical architecture within which organizations operate that allows or needs certain information to be gathered , disclosed or used ( Wright, 2011) . Furthermore, basing on the information provided by PIAs might be able to deliberate on possible solutions to mitigate perceived privacy concerns or give advice on what legislations are most appropriate. Essentially, information from PIAs unravels possible flaws that might be used by cyber-criminals to avert justice due to weak legislations. It thus provides lawmakers a chance to fix these flaws and rectify any inconsistencies with the constitution. Recommendations Everyone has a vital role in ensuring that information privacy is upheld. Therefore, there should be a senior employee tasked with general privacy accountability. Furthermore, there should be a task team responsible for handling privacy concerns plus a privacy officer who understands the responsibilities of the entity within the privacy Act. Senior management must