In sorting through the many suggestions, facts and opinions offered to us by experts and members of the public, we have identified six guiding principles SSA needs to incorporate into our plans for the future. Electronic access to information is a valuable public service. This is especially true for people who seek access to their personal information.
Public education is a vital part of offering electronic services.
What Internet is and how it works is not yet well understood or trusted by the general public. Agencies that would use the Internet must begin the job of building the kind of public trust given to the telephone and the U.S. mail systems. The complexity, expense and barriers to users inherent in security and privacy safeguards must be commensurate with the value of the data being protected . A 100 percent secure application is neither possible nor desirable since security enhancements also can make valid access more difficult. An assessment of the sensitivity of data or of a particular application is critical to designing the safeguards that will protect the data.