CDT Hosts Discussion on Analytics Tools Use on Government Web Sites

As expected, the Obama Administration has been encouraging federal agencies to adopt Web 2.0 strategies in an effort to create an environment that fosters a more transparent and participatory government.

With this new level of open government comes heightened awareness of ramifications that a true “Government 2.0” could have on personal privacy. For example, a recent blog post by Saul Hansell in the New York Times Bits Blog draws attention to the concern some groups have expressed with the new reality of being able to “friend” the Department of Homeland Security on Facebook or other social networks.   Through this “friending” process, what kinds of personal data will DHS and other agencies have access to and how will this data be used, stored and analyzed?

CDT and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will release a joint report on federal agency web sites’ use of analytics tools. Additionally, CDT will host a moderated discussion on the use of analytics tools on government Web sites. The discussion will focus on the analysis of existing policy and recommendations made in the report, in addition to other trends in open government, such as the increased use of social networks.

Panel members will include representatives from privacy and civil liberties groups.

The event will be covered live via our Twitter feed (@CenDemTech); questions from Twitter users following the event’s hashtag (#govmeas) will be incorporated into the panel discussions.

We also will be streaming the discussion LIVE via UStream.tv channel: http://blog.cdt.org/2009/05/07/cdt-to-host-discussion-on-web-measurement-on-government-web-sites/

Full text of the report is available here.

To RSVP, email Brock Meeks ([email protected]).

What: Panel Discussion: Privacy and Analytics on Government Web Sites
Where: CDT – 1634 Eye St., NW, Washington DC – 11th floor
When: May 12, 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.