Steve Carlson and Ernest Miller, students of Yale Law School and co-presidents of the Yale Law and Technology Society, testified before the General Government B Subcommittee on Appropriations in support of increased privacy protection for personal data collected by the State of Connecticut. Both Carlson and Miller identified particular areas of concern with regard to protection of personal data and made suggestions for legislation that would decrease the dangers to privacy posed by the government's plan to privatize its information technology infrastructure. Their suggestions sought to balance the government's goals of increased efficiency and accessibility with the need to provide adequate security for an individual's privacy. The goal of freedom of information is transparency of government, not transparency of our personal lives.
Current laws offer spotty and untested protection for personal data.
If this project integrates all the state's data into a seamless web, it stands to unleash a flood of personal data. In July 1998, the State of Connecticut authorized the privatization of its information technology services. While the contract will strive to improve the efficiency of the state's information technology infrastructure, it may not take into sufficient consideration the risks to personal privacy inherent in the initiative. Mr. Miller testified that one of the risks that is seldom acknowledged is the lack of adequate privacy protection for transfers of information between government agencies. Government workers have significant discretion to gather disparate personal data that were acquired by other agencies for other purposes.