ANN ARBOR—How much does the government know about you and what does it do with the information?

What the government has in its databases and how the information affects individual privacy rights concerns Maya A. Bernstein, a Washington, D.C., attorney, who will deliver a talk on “Big Brother, Deadbeat Dads, and the New Economy: Recent Trends in Information Privacy.”

The talk at the School of Information, from noon-1:30 p.m.
Bernstein concentrates her practice on the legal and public policy issues associated with the transition to electronic commerce, including data protection and privacy compliance, electronic signature law, and negotiation of transactions between online parties. Previously, Bernstein was a senior policy analyst in the Office of Management and Budget and was the agency’s lead analyst on privacy policy, electronic mail, and intellectual property.

In describing her lecture, Bernstein notes that “the first nine weeks of the new Congress saw the introduction of 50 bills related to the privacy of personal information— more than one a day. Privacy is a critical concern for consumers, businesses, and government, particularly in an age of increasingly sophisticated communications technology. Technology confers great advantages, but at the same time, creates great risks.

“The potential for trouble is growing in both the public and private sectors. The federal government is actively amassing and matching large databases of personal information as a fraud-reduction and cost-avoidance tool. Much of the private sector has adopted this same strategy, but for the purpose of targeted marketing campaigns. The result is a significant increase in collections of very detailed personal information that are valuable commodities in the marketplace, but over which consumers have little control.”

Bernstein will look at the trends in privacy policy that shape how companies do business and look at how various federal laws, such as those regarding welfare reform, have created new databases with vast amounts of personal information.

For more information, call (734) 763-2285 or visit si.umich.edu.

Maya A. BernsteinSchool of InformationOffice of Management and Budgetsi.umich.edu