Individuals have a right to expect that organizations will keep personal information confidential. One way to ensure this is to require that organizations will collect, maintain, use, and disseminate identifiable personal information and data only as necessary to carry out their functions. Less well-known are the basic principles for achieving information privacy. Integrity is concerned with maintaining information on individuals that is correct, complete, and timely. The source of the information should be clearly stated, especially when the information is based on indirect sources.
Aggregation is the combining of information from various sources.
Information Sharing is concerned with authorized or proper disclosure of information to outside organizations or individuals. Information should be disclosed only when authorized specifically and solely for the limited use specified. Proper Access is concerned with limiting access to information and resources to authorized individuals who have a demonstrable need to perform official duties. Information servers such as the World Wide Web support quick and efficient access to a large number of distributed, but interlinked, information sources. As the amount of information to be shared grows, the need to restrict access only to specific users or for specific usage will surely arise.