Reflection 1

Assignment 3-2, Reflection on Information-Related Laws

Professor Earnshaw, MIS 200

Cinda Harrold

Franklin University

October 25, 2009

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Reflection on Information-Related Laws

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was designed to fully or partially disclose

documents and information held by the United States government thereby increasing the

transparency and openness of legislative functions and actions. The law was approved in 1966

and has been amended three times since then (in 1996, 2002, and 2007) (U.S., 2008). The

Freedom of Information Act defines which records are subject to disclosure and delineates

procedures for disclosing the information and records related to agencies and departments of the

executive branch of government including cabinet and military departments, government (or

government-controlled) corporations, and regulatory agencies. The FOIA does not apply to the

federal judiciary, private businesses, elected officials of the federal government (such as the

President), or state and local governments (U.S., 2008). The compliance with FOIA must

delicately balance what the public has a right to know versus what the public cannot know due to

national security issues.

While the intent behind the Freedom of Information Act is a good and just cause,

compliance with the act has both negative and positive effects for the public as well as the

information services industry. Even though the FOIA details steps for providing the information

to the public, the procedures are not followed consistently from agency to agency. The public

has little recourse against those agencies that fail to comply with FOIA, other than to seek relief

in the court system by filing injunctions (Pastika, Klaper, & Desai, n.d.). Agencies must provide

consistent, ongoing training in a manner that will produce reliable output from employees. This

should include entire reviews of the FOIA such that all information providers are aware of which

records should be made available and in what format.

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The Freedom of Information Act is a good way for citizens to become involved in

government matters at all levels. Providing records at nominal fees and understanding which

information should be provided will ensure a smoother transition for the public (Transportation,

2005). Citizens have a right to monitor the government activities to see if they are in the best

interest of the public as well as making knowledgeable political decisions. Hindrances such as

excessive access fees and lack of understanding of which information should be provided will

prevent the public from openly and freely discussing public issues.

The information services industry is particularly affected by the Freedom of Information

Act in that information systems and software must be modified accordingly to enable records to

be provided and distributed as well as protecting secure information and data from being

revealed. All forms and records must be digitized whether they are federal contracts, grants,

disclosure forms, or campaign contributions (Koontz, 2005). Watchdog organizations making

requests for information can build up databases, such as copies of all correspondence to and from

members of Congress, that are fully searchable on the internet. However, occasional roadblocks,

such as providing scanned unsearchable images of electronic files, crop up from agencies

deliberately misinterpreting the FOIA or unfortunately lacking the technical capability and

understanding to submit the electronic data in an electronic, searchable format (Transportation,

2005).

The benefits of the Freedom of Information Act outweigh the costs from the general

public point of view (Baltzan, & Phillips, 2009). The government is held accountable to the

people and cannot pass any secret regulations or laws. The FOIA improves the credibility of the

government to its citizens as well as likely increasing the chances for making better decisions

knowing that the public at some point will have access to the documents. Having this type of
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transparency in the government allows Mr. Joe Q. Public the chance to make sure that the

agencies are operating in his best interests. If he is unhappy with their actions, he can take steps

to change legislation or restructure the way those agencies interact with the government, the

laws, or regulations. By examining budgets and contracts, the public can hold the government

accountable for every penny of their tax dollars and bring to light irresponsible decisions that led

to ridiculous spending on unproductive projects (Freedom, 2005).

While compliance with FOIA benefits the public, the cost can hamper the governmental

entities. Several hundred million dollars are spent every year by the governmental agencies to

provide information, sometimes free-of-charge on a website, to the public per the FOIA mandate

(Davis, 2008). Additional costs can arise when the agencies have to review the records for

accuracy and security. The information services industry can assist with this duty by providing

software applications to automate some of these tasks, thereby realizing cost savings related to

the reduction in manual efforts. The FOIA also requires that all agencies report FOIA activities

to the Attorney General on an annual basis (Freedom, 2005). This is another opportunity for the

information services industry to help. More frequently the government is turning to solutions

from third parties for these types of services rather than relying on internal staff that may not

have the level of technical expertise required to build such systems.

Freedom of Information Act requirements has impacts on the collection, storage, and

erasure of data, information, and records which impact cost (Allison, 2008). Agencies must obey

data retention periods which can increase hardware costs including maintenance and purchase of

newer technology. In order to the meet the terms of the FOIA, the government must also follow

the procedures for the destruction of records and implement quality procedures that verify the

data has been destroyed. Collecting the data requires the least amount of effort, but later morphs
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into maintaining the data which puts a much more significant drain on resources (Huber, 2004).

If the data is not maintained it will become worthless, and costs to revive or update the data will

increase exponentially depending upon the age of the data. Development of document

management systems including document imaging, conversion into searchable text, and

knowledge management by the information services industry is the best way for an agency to

fulfill the requisites of the Freedom of Information Act (Booth, 2005).

Information services must be careful to separate data and information that is required to

be publically disclosed from that which is required to be kept private. Requests for information

are usually taken in written form and then verified by both a person as well as software to weed

out requests for private information (Lithgow, 2008). The agency then utilizes software to

search for the pertinent records, assemble the data, and transmit the information to the requestor.

However, over time, requests have piled up and some agencies have bigger backlogs of requests

than others (Bush, 2008). Costs to enforce internal controls have risen and it appears that the

information services industry has been able to contribute little to reducing the workload. From

the information services industry point of view, the costs of FOIA outweigh the benefits.

On the other side, agencies must also implement safeguards that ensure the information

allowed to be submitted to the public is not prevented from being transmitted (Ogden, 2008).

These precautions are not easily handled by technology at the moment. Internal controls for

monitoring compliance with the Freedom of Information Act are required to produce consistent

results. Sensitive information must not be inappropriately disclosed and public information must

not be improperly exempted from disclosure (Freedom, 2005). As technology improves,

compliance with the FOIA must be constantly reevaluated and new controls established. New

definitions of data, records, and information emerge as new technology is born. Information
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services can best profit from compliance with FOIA by making sure that their systems and

software support easy access to and retrieval of documents, records, data, and information. Data

warehouses and architectural design enhancements allow for correct storage and manipulation of

the records while monitoring private versus public data fields.

Is the public willing to foot the bill for compliance with FOIA? I believe so. As a

citizen, I place more value on the access to governmental information than the cost to maintain

and provide such data. I am willing to pay higher taxes in order to have the ability to retrieve

this information. Without such monitoring of governmental activities by the public, the

government would be much more likely to make poor decisions and spend the remaining

taxpayer monies unwisely. While some technology costs are increasing, other technology costs,

such as data storage, are decreasing. The tradeoff between new technology and improved

functionality should result in an overall lower increased cost and therefore a greater return on

investment. Leveraging technology provided by the information services companies is the best

way to provide the regulated information to the public.

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References

Allison, B. (2008). Real-time watchdogs. IRE Journal, 31(2), 20-22. http://search.ebscohost.com

Baltzan, P., & Phillips, A. (2009). Business Driven Information Systems. (2nd ed.). New York:

McGraw-Hill Professional.

Booth, B. (2005). Clean data is good business. Computer Weekly, 22.

http://search.ebscohost.com

(2008). Bush backtracks on transparency. Information Management Journal, 42(3), 7.

http://search.ebscohost.com

Davis, C. (2008). Good news for foia. IRE Journal, 31(2), 15. http://search.ebscohost.com

(2005). Freedom of Information Act: public bodies struggling to meet demand? Records

Management Society Bulletin, (127), 7. http://search.ebscohost.com

Huber, N. (2004). Document management systems aid compliance. Computer Weekly, 18.

http://search.ebscohost.com

Koontz, L. (2005). Information management: implementation of the freedom of information act:

GAO-05-648T. GAO Reports, 1. http://search.ebscohost.com

Lithgow, T. (2008). Security tightens after GP pay leak. Pulse, 68(7), 10.

http://search.ebscohost.com

Ogden, D. (2008). Skeletons in the e-cupboard: how census law is changing with the impact of

digitization and the freedom of information act 2000. Legal Information Management,

8(4), 288-292. http://search.ebscohost.com, doi:10.1017/S1472669608000716

Pastika, T., Klaper, S., & Desai, R. (n.d.). Citizens advocacy center freedom of information act

study. Retrieved from

http://www.citizenadvocacycenter.org/Reports/FreedomOfInformationAct.pdf
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(2005). Transportation security administration: clear policies and oversight needed for

designation of sensitive security information: GAO-05-677. GAO Reports, 1.

http://search.ebscohost.com

(2008). U.S. freedom of information act overview. Retrieved from

http://www.zlti.com/resources/docs/Rules%20and

%20Regulations/ZL.RR.USFreedomofInformationAct.pdf