‘Privacy and public policy delivery – Dichotomy or design’

In recent years the repeated compromise and loss of personal information, from a variety of sources, both public and private, have led to the issue of privacy being increasingly in the public eye. Concurrently public policy developments in line with the UK's Transformational Government agenda have led to ever greater amounts of personal information being made available electronically, and with greater levels of access being explored in order to exploit greater efficiencies in the delivery of public services. Such a rise in both public concern of the security of their data and the levels of access being afforded to improve efficiency has sometimes been seen as dichotomous. This article looks at some of these underlying concerns to suggest some of the issues that need to be addressed when considering privacy in a public policy context, and examines the dangers of retrofitting privacy as an afterthought, and hence the importance of privacy by design.