Chapter 9 Ethical Privacy Policies for E-Government Websites

With the increasing use of the Internet and social media, governments worldwide are adopting digital technologies and innovative strategies to communicate and engage with their citizens. Public sector agencies, especially at the local level, have been adopting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial Intelligence, and blockchain and they are increasingly leveraging big data analytics to improve their decision-making and organizational performance. These rapid innovations pose important questions about, and concerns for, the privacy and security of the citizens accessing government information and services online. This chapter explores these issues, discusses the role of privacy policies in addressing such concerns, and highlights the need for ethical privacy policies to restore the trust and confidence of citizen users of government websites.