Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and business - is privacy and data protection. It
is the ability of digital ICTs to readily copy and
circulate data that intensifies concerns about per-
sonal privacy. Over the years governments have
developed a range of policy instruments to limit
the distribution of personal data held by public and
private organizations, and to ensure appropriate
technological and organizational practices are in
place to avoid unauthorized access to personal data
(Bennett & Raab, 2006). The policy concern with
privacy is very much tied up with concerns about
“dataveillance”, that is, surveillance through the
use of one's data (Lyon, 1994; 2007) and more
recently identity fraud, which is the act of claim-
ing to be someone you are not.
The “digital divide” is another social problem
which has said to have arisen as a result of ICTs.
The argument is that as digital ICTs - and the
internet in particular - have become increasingly
essential to the conduct of everyday life (such as
banking, education and learning, interacting with
government and participating in social networks)
those without access to those technologies and/
or the ability to use them will become increas-
ingly excluded from mainstream society (Norris,
2001; Servon, 2002). A range of social policies
have developed to address this concern, including
enhancing education, increasing use of ICTs in
schools, encouraging markets for low-cost ICTs
and providing public access to ICTs and training
in their use.
A second way in which ICTs relate to social
policy is that the technologies are used to
imple-
ment
and
administer
social policies. ICTs are
now an essential part of government operations
due to their ability to efficiently store, manage,
circulate and calculate data. ICTs provide the
means by which government officials are able to
readily access the personal data of recipients of
human services in order to assess eligibility, reg-
ister changes of circumstances and record actions
taken. In calculating benefit eligibility for social
security and taxation benefits, ICTs automate
policy. Networked ICTs have become particularly
significant as governments have increasingly used
non-government organizations to deliver human
services. Such “outsourcing” of government
operations often involves extensive and regular
data reporting requirements, which networked
ICTs support. Through data-matching exercises,
governments use ICTs to assess compliance with
social policies to ensure only those individuals
and organizations entitled to receive particular
benefits, services and payments do so.
Apart from implementing social policy, ICTs
are thirdly used in the social policy process for
policy analysis, evaluation and development.
Administering policy generates immense amounts
of data which ICTs can store. Such data holdings
are often combined with additional data which
are then analyzed to understand the impact,
distribution and effectiveness of social policy.
Governments increasingly use highly complex
computer models to assist policy developers
identify the likely impact of proposed policies
on different sectors of society. Models are now
commonplace in economic forecasting, population
change, taxation and social security, retirement
incomes projections and climate change (Hen-
man, 2002). Insights gained from using ICTs in
analyzing policy domains provide the basis for
refining and reforming social policy.
Finally, ICTs
shape
social policies. It is the
way in which ICTs operate that can contribute to
new forms of social policy. It has been long argued
that computers embody a quantitative, calculative
and formally-defined form of operation (Henman,
1995; Roszak, 1988; Weizenbaum, 1984) which
has shaped social policies to become more focused
on quantitative elements of social problems and
reduce professional discretion in human service
delivery (Alexander, 1990; Garson, 1989; Hen-
man, 1997; Henman, 1999). Computers have also
come to define what policies are implementable.
They can close off some policy options and while
opening up more complex options. Data gener-
ated, stored and analyzed by ICTs have also given
rise to new insights. One example is an emerged
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