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Strengthening Title 44 part 3: Privacy
Privacy
This is the third in a series of posts in which we elaborate on the reasons behind our recent recommendations for strengthening Title 44 of the U.S. Code.
We recommend strengthening the language of Title 44 to ensure the protection of the privacy of users of online government information.
Recommendation
Current Law
Neither Chapter 19 nor Chapter 41 of Title 44 have any privacy provisions.
Some chapters of Title 44 explicitly refer to privacy protections provided in 5 USC 552a “Records maintained on individuals.”
Chapter 35 of Title 44 (“Coordination Of Federal Information Policy”) has a large section of privacy provisions — including agency websites (§3501 “Federal Management and Promotion of Electronic Government Services” popularly known as the “Paperwork Reduction Act”).
Analysis
Our recommendation fills a gap in the current law by adding privacy protections to Chapter 41.
It has become commonplace for websites to track user behavior and for companies to build user profiles based on user browsing across different websites. It is essential to assure the general public that it can search, browse, acquire and use government information without being tracked or profiled. Existing law is designed to allow government agencies to use modern web technologies to customize the behavior of websites while preventing those agencies from tracking indvidual-level activities. Chapter 41, which enables govinfo.gov, does not explicitly cite those privacy protections.
Our recommendation would make it clear that GPO’s online services are covered by existing legislation by incorporating some of the language from 5 USC 552a and OMB’s website privacy guidance memorandum directly into Chapter 41.
Our recommendation would also go further than existing legislation and guidance by prohibiting GPO from using third-party web measurement and customization technologies on govinfo.gov. Such technologies (e.g., Google Analytics) allow third-parties (e.g., Google) to collect information as users browse, search and access information from a website such as govinfo.gov. As far as we can tell, the only third-party customization that GPO currently uses on govinfo.gov is an html5 javascript library from Google. But GPO does still use Google Analytics on the Catalog of Government Publications and on its FDLP website. By adding to Chapter 41 an explicit prohibition of the use of third-party measurement and customization technologies, govinfo.gov would have the strongest privacy protection of any government agency.
Effects
Our recommendation would have several positive effects.
Endnotes
Authors:
James A. Jacobs, University of California San Diego
James R. Jacobs, Stanford University
Related
Tags: digital fdlp, fdlp, future of federal depository library program, gpo, title44