She was horrified by the thought, because she was already overworked and did not have enough time in the week to make contact with as many of her clients as she wished. If even a fourth of her clients requested, it would have been physically impossible for her to comply with a Fair Information Practices Act requirement of access. Therefore, calling for a right of the record subject to access the records was of little value in practice. We should also involve the record subject in the practice. At least we'd be checking the system, if not the individual record.
Herb raises some fundamental questions in terms of remedies.
The Fair Information Practices have indeed given to individuals rights that they may not know they have or that they don't have the time or resources to use. The burden of enforcement of the practices is shifted to the individual data subject. Also, Fair Information Practices impose responsibilities on the staff running the programs, and this typically occurs without additional support to implement. Limiting the collection of personal information was one of the key principles of the early codes of Fair Information Practices and of the Privacy Protection Study Commission. Once information is collected, it's an uphill battle to control the exchange and disclosure of information.