The survey is part of a two-year project by ASNE to develop new strategies for expanding and protecting freedom of information at a time when the Internet, privacy issues and the commercialization of records are changing the landscape for openness. The poll and other research gives us a good sense of what we re up against, said Anders Gyllenhaal, FOI committee chair. It tells us exactly where we have people s support and where we have to do more work to build it. The results show that efforts to ensure government openness must bear in mind a complicated set of public concerns about privacy and the potential for information abuse. Even if I never need to view a public record myself, it is important that I have the right to do so.
Internet raises privacy concerns.
Freedom of Information Committee spent the past year studying how technology, the Internet and changing public opinions are affecting access issues. Interviews were conducted with a national scientific sample of 1,005 adults 18 years of age or older. Sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. New report available The survey coincides with the release of a new report, Freedom of Information in the Digital Age, produced by the First Amendment Center and the ASNE Freedom of Information Committee. The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education.