In response to Prof. Miyazaki's blog entry for this week, I would say that online governing is already changing the world. Many years ago, it would've been impossible to even consider the possibility of filling taxes online, for example. Something that most people look for professional help in order to do, can be done online, without an expert's help, simply by clicking on the right bottoms once at a time.
In regards to the privacy of the constituent information, I did some research and also, from all I've read about the subject, I can say that up to this point, the government hasn't done much because laws concerning online privacy are still being developed. When providing personal information on the Internet, one has to be careful on how to disclose that information and also on where to provide that information to. Be aware that if a U.S. law is broken in another country, there is not much to be done since there is no international regulations for online users.
In regards to the efficient processing of the vast amount of information collected, stored, and disseminated online, I should say that I believe the government has absolute total control over all the information around its activities. There are many softwares being developed to help the government control and store information.
I don't think that the lack of face-to-face interaction between government agencies and the people they serve will affect the results of government actions because not everything can be done online. The most important and delicate situations will still be taken care of through on-site locations.
Even with all the development of online government services, the main characteristic that government agencies share with its tax-payers will still be respect, and that was not built through online services.
I actually think some tasks are better suited to be done online, such as filing taxes or filing for food stamps. Having the ability to do things like these hopefully will decrease processing times, and maybe even the costs related to these tasks. I prefer to do anything that I can online, from banking to shopping, and now that even includes interacting with our government.
ReplyDeleteI dont think that anything significant can be done right now to protect users of government sites other than the government securing its own websites because the internet privacy laws are pretty non-existent & there is no international law, as you said, to protect users from hackers in another country.
ReplyDeleteYes - some things should be done online, HOWEVER most should not be. It's so easy for someone to fill out an application - yet the main person in charge of that information does not know if the end user is the right person that is suppose to fill out the forms or applications. With this being said, if that application or form were to be done in person - no one person would ever dare to fill out that form. Sure you can have scary notifications of "if you are not the right person filling out this form, then etc etc" - but hardly anyone read those. And it is also very easy for your information to be hacked. If the right information is hacked, then you have your credit, social security, ad everything else at risk. It's a crazy world we live in - and the government should know that, and try to make it a more safer place, even if that means more work for them.
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