Dems block anti-Google witness

“For example, a government agency that chooses to establish a presence on a third party provider’s service, such as Facebook, could have limited control over what is done with its information once posted on the electronic venue…Privacy could be compromised if clear limits are not set on how the government uses personal information to which it has access in social networking environments.”

Wilshusen writes that members of the public interacting with the government via Web 2.0 media might provide personal information for specific government purposes and might not understand that information could be collected and stored by third-party commercial providers as well. “It also may not be clear as to whose privacy policy applies when a third party manages content on a government agency Web site,” he writes.

Wilshusen also notes that the National Archives and Records Administration has already indicated content created by interactive software on federal government websites is considered part of the agency’s records and should be preserved as such. “These requirements may be challenging for agencies because the types of records involved when information is collected via Web 2.0 technologies may not be clear … The potential complexity of these decisions and the resulting record-keeping requirements and processes can be daunting to agencies,” he said.