Top

Published in:

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Regulation of Digital Government

Author : Michael Silverman

Published in: Digital Government

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

New digital technologies bear great potential for the transformation of traditional processes of governance. However, concerns about issues such as security, privacy and health require strategies of regulatory oversight on a national, regional and international level. This chapter maps out the key areas that have significant implications for digital governments: the Internet, Social Media, Cloud Computing and mobile devices. It further provides an examination of some of the challenges governments face in the use and control of online technologies, which include cyber security, content control, big data, privacy and ownership. An analysis of some of the most crucial considerations for regulatory practices follows. The promise of global information and transformation for governance is significant—yet governments face daunting challenges in harnessing its potential and minimizing its risks.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

previous chapter Technology for Good: Innovative Uses of Emerging Technologies to Address Social Challenges

next chapter Mexico: Single Window for Foreign Trade

The diverse and fragmented governance of the internet include a number of other technical organizations responsible for coordination of the Internet infrastructure. In addition to the those named above there are IEFT (The Internet Engineering Task Force) which is a component of the ISOC (Internet Society), IAB (Internet Architecture Board) RIRs (Regional Internet Registries), and W3C ‬(World Wide Web Consortium).‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

As of 2015 there are 156 countries, ranging from the United Arab Republic to Zambia who participate in ICANN’s Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO).

In June and July, 2015 it was reported in various media that hackers had stolen a vast amount of data from the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) computer networks. It included information on 21.5 million people who had undergone background checks for security clearances. In a separate but related data breach, information on 4.2 million current and former U.S. workers were stolen. It was estimated that the total number of people affected by these actions represented almost 7 % of the U.S. population (Zengerie and Cassella 2015).

In July 2015, the United States’ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was investigating a threat to the security of the Fiat Chrysler Jeep and a hacker being able to gain control over its dashboard connectivity system. A recall of 1.4 million cars was initiated to correct potential system flaws. One U.S. Congressman said of the issue, “cars today are essentially computers on wheels, and the last thing that drivers should have to worry about is some hacker along for the ride” (Kessler 2015).

Since 2014, the Chinese government is using a broader interpretation of existing law to exercise stringent control over internet speech. As the New York Times reported, “Artists, essayists, lawyers, bloggers have been hauled into police stations and investigated or imprisoned for ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’”. The definition of picking quarrels now encompasses on-line activities. First time offenders can be sentenced up to 5 years in prison (Wong 2015).

In August 2015 a draft proposal for the future governance of ICANN was published. Under the proposal, ICANN would be an independent entity without US government oversight and the transition would take place sometime in mid-2016. https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/ccwg-draft-2-proposal-work-stream-1-recs-03aug15-en.pdf

On March 27, 2014, AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel announced that they were forming the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), an open membership group to support better access to big data with improved integration of the physical and digital worlds (Industrial Internet Consortium 2014).

In 2015, the United States’ Federal Trade Commission created the Office of Technology Research and Investigation (OTIR) to research issues on technology’s impact on consumers including privacy, data security, connected cars, smart homes, algorithmic transparency, emerging payment methods, big data, and the Internet of Things.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/techftc/2015/03/booting-new-research-office-ftc

In a workshop hosted by the US Federal Trade Commission in 2013 on IoT), participants urged caution in regulatory actions. One participant noted that “we should be careful to kind of strike a balance between guiding companies in the right direction and enforcing”. Another participant feared that the workshop “represents the beginning of a regulatory regime for a new set of information technologies that are still in their infancy” https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/federal-trade-commission-staff-report-november-2013-workshop-entitled-internet-things-privacy/150127iotrpt.pdf

Acatech (National Academy of Science and Engineering). (2015). Smart service welt: Recommendations for the strategic initiative web-based services for business. http://www.acatech.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Baumstruktur_nach_Website/Acatech/root/de/Projekte/Laufende_Projekte/Smart_Service_Welt/BerichtSmartService_engl.pdf

Akkoc, R. (2015, April). Turkey blocks access to social media and YouTube over hostage photos. The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11518004/Turkey-blocks-access-to-Facebook-Twitter-and-YouTube.html

Brito, J. (2010). The promise and limits of E-Rulemaking. Mercatus Research. http://mercatus.org/sites/default/files/publication/promise-and-limits-of-e-rulemaking_1.pdf

Brown, K. (2015). A ray of light shines on internet rights. The Blog. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-brown/a-ray-of-light-shines-on-_b_7026544.html

Cerf, V. G. (2012, May 24). Keep the internet open. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/keep-the-internet-open.html?_r=0

Chatfeld, T. (2014). Making digital government work for everyone. Digital Government Review. http://digitalgovernmentreview.readandcomment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/EMBARGOED_CONFIDENTIAL_MASTER-Final-Report-20141124_CLEAN.pdf

CNN.com Google to censor itself in China. (2006). http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/01/25/google.china/

Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. (2014). Big data and privacy: A technological perspective. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/PCAST/pcast_amr_sept_2014_final.pdf

Daily Mail Reporter. (2013, December 4). Hackers steal usernames and passwords for TWO MILLION social media accounts—and many of the log-ins were as easy as ‘123’. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2518540/Facebook-Twitter-hackers-steal-passwords-2m-social-media-accounts.html

Dauglis, A. (2014). How digital technology can drive modernisation throughout government. Delivering Public Service for the Future. www.lisboncouncil.net/index.php?option=com_downloads&id=1070

Dewey, C. (2015, April 10). Russia just made a ton of mems illegal. Washington Post. Accessed July 27, 2015, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/04/10/russia-just-made-a-ton-of-internet-memes-illegal/

eMarketer. (2014). Smartphone users worldwide will total 1.75 billion in 2014. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Users-Worldwide-Will-Total-175-Billion-2014/1010536

Executive Office of the President of the United States. (2012). Digital government: Building a 21st century platform to better serve the American people. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/egov/digital-government/digital-government.html

FDIC. (2011). Mobile banking: Rewards and risks. Supervisory Insights. https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/supervisory/insights/siwin11/mobile.html

Feldman, J. (2015). Internet indelibility and the right to be forgotten. Daily Report. http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202725862358/Internet-Indelibility-and-the-Right-to-Be-Forgotten

Fung, B. (2015). Your guide to net neutrality: Everything you need to know about today’s FCC vote. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/02/26/your-guide-to-net-neutrality-everything-you-need-to-know-about-todays-fcc-vote/

Gartner. (2014, November 11). Says 4.9 billion connected “things” will be in use in 2015. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2905717

Geere, D. (2015, March 7). Europe reverses course on net neutrality legislation. Ars Technica. http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/europe-reverses-course-on-net-neutrality-legislation/

Gellman, B., & Soltani, A. (2013, October 30). NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide, Snowden documents say. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-infiltrates-links-to-yahoo-google-data-centers-worldwide-snowden-documents-say/2013/10/30/e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89d714ca4dd_story.html

Grogan, A. R. (2015). ICANN‬ is not the internet content police. ICANN‬ Blog. https://www.icann.org/news/blog/icann-is-not-the-internet-content-police‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Hogben, G., & Dekker, M. (2010). European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). Smartphones: Information security risks, opportunities and recommendations for users.

Industrial Internet Consortium. (2014). AT&T, CISCO, GE, IBM and INTEL form industrial internet consortium to improve integration of the physical and digital Worlds tech. http://www.iiconsortium.org/press-room/03-27-14.htm

Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. (2010). The Internet in China. http://china.org.cn/government/whitepaper/node_7093508.htl

Internet Society (ISOC). (2015). Internet Governance Survey 2015. http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-governance-survey-2015

ITU. (2014). ITU releases 2014 ICT figures. http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2014/23.aspx#.U2pey2RdVz1

Ken, M. (2012). Protests, not criticism, the target for China’s internet censors, study says. PCWorld. http://www.pcworld.com/article/257707/protests_not_criticism_the_target_for_chinas_internet_censors_study_says.html

Kessler, A. M. (2015, July 25). Fiat Chrysler issues recall on hacking. New York Times.

Mohamed, A. (2009). A history of cloud computing. Computerweekly.com. http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/A-history-of-cloud-computing

NewsOK. (2015). Will ‘net neutrality’ make access fair for customers, or stifle growth? http://newsok.com/will-net-neutrality-make-access-fair-for-customers-or-stifle-growth/article/feed/812544

Obama, B. (2014). Net neutrality. https://www.whitehouse.gov/net-neutrality

OECD. (2012). Cybersecurity policy making at a turning point. http://www.oecd.org/sti/ieconomy/cybersecurity%20policy%20making.pdf

Office of the Press Secretary, the White House. (2009, May). Remarks by the President on Securing Our Nation’s Cyber Infrastructure. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-securing-our-nations-cyber-infrastructure

Out-Law.com (Pineset Masons). (2013). Big data: Privacy concerns stealing the headlines but IP issues of equal importance to businesses, says expert. http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2013/march/big-data-privacy-concerns-stealing-the-headlines-but-ip-issues-of-equal-importance-to-businesses-says-expert/

Sasso, B. (2012, August 2). House urges Obama to fight UN web regulation. The Hill. http://thehill.com/policy/technology/242007-house-urges-obama-to-fight-un-internet-regulation-in-unanimous-vote

Scholl, A. (2012). The problem with internet regulation. World Policy Blog. http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2012/09/25/problem-internet-regulation

Silverman, M. (2008). Compliance management for public, private or nonprofit organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Sniderman, Z. (2011). How governments are using social media for better and for worse. Mashable. http://mashable.com/2011/07/25/government-social-media/

Soni, A. (2015). How people power took on big business in the fight for net neutrality in India. The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/25/india-net-neutrality-people-power

Timberg, C. (2014). U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-to-relinquish-remaining-control-over-the-internet/2014/03/14/0c7472d0-abb5-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_story.htm

USA Today. (2014). Top 10 Internet-censored countries. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/05/top-ten-internet-censors/5222385/

Werbach, K. (2009, Fall). Higher standards regulation in the network age. Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, 23(1).

Wilson, C. (2015). US Telecom: FCC’s move has global implications. http://www.lightreading.com/net-neutrality/us-telecom-fccs-move-has-global-implications/d/d-id/714049

Wong, E. (2015, July 27). In War on Internet ‘Troublemakers’, China turns to law on picking quarrels. New York Times.

World Summit on the Information Society. (2015). Tunis agenda for the information society. http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/tunis/off/6rev1.html

Zengerle Patricia and Megan Cassella. (2015, July 9). Millions more Americans hit by government personnel data hack. Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/09/us-cybersecurity-usa-idUSKCN0PJ2M420150709

Title: Regulation of Digital Government
Author: Michael Silverman
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Digital Government
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-38793-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-38795-6

Copyright Year: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-38795-6_4

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Premium Partner