A Review of Commission Studies Dealing with Personal Data about Individuals The Welfare System: A Case Study Introduction The scope and diversity of Federal Government functions are mirrored in its information-gathering activities. As the numbers and types of Federal programs grow, so too does the demand for more kinds of information at increasing levels of detail. Federal agencies, and their State and local counterparts, now collect information from individuals, commercial and not-for-profit enterprises, educational institutions, labor organizations, and from one another. This information is used for such functions as licensing, registration, inspection, insuring, training, regulating, servicing, diagnosing, treating, charging, paying, or conveying other benefits or penalties. In addition to supporting these operational and administrative functions, information is often sought for research and statistical purposes — that is, to augment general knowledge, to explore the dimensions, trends, and relationships among groups of persons, businesses, and so on. Some of the information that is collected must remain identifiable as to its source or subject if it is to be useful. Other data, gathered for statistical or research purposes, can be used without being attributed to specific individuals or business entities. The effective use of this information is limited by several factors discussed in other Commission reports. Among these constraints is the lack of advance planning and coordination among the Federal agencies to assess the information needs of all agencies and the most cost-effective methods of fulfilling such needs. Concomitant with this is the incapacity of such agencies to identify data which already exist as a Federal resource and to appraise their value for any specific agency use or purpose. It may often be more efficient quicker and cheaper for an agency to collect information anew than to try to locate that which is already available within the executive branch. Bureaucratic attitudes and traditions act as further constraints on information sharing at the Federal level. Proprietary attitudes of individual agencies — or administrators — limit their willingness to act as donors or recipients of information already available. The attitude that only the agency which administers a program can determine the data needed to execute the program or to monitor compliance works to inhibit the use of "second-hand" information. Where agencies are willing to release their own data, the information disclosed is often limited to that which suits the agency purpose. This bureaucratic manipulation of information is used to enhance the position or policy or power of agencies and their officials. Even where several agencies share administrative responsibility, agency policies may vary or, in some instances, conflict, thereby making agreement on data collected difficult if not unlikely. Equally constraining are the myriad laws, regulations, and policies relating to the confidentiality of data collected. The diversity of types of data collected is equalled only by the wide variety of Federal policies governing the use and dissemination of such information. In addition to laws of a general nature which regulate the collection, 1 |