Information Technology Acts While information technology today has many distinct advantages, it is also important to acknowledge that there are some specific potential drawbacks. These drawbacks relate especially to the right to privacy of people making use of information technology. Users of Internet subscription services, for example, expect certain privacy rights in terms of the contact and personal information they choose to divulge. At the same time, large institutions like learning establishments and health insurance companies are required to provide their clients with a certain level of privacy assurance. For this reason, certain technological advances have required a revision of legislation to ensure that the privacy of citizens is protected. Two such pieces of legislation include The Family Education Rights And Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.

FERPA

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 was passed to address the right to privacy for students at learning institutions. Under the act,...

Further, such release is subject to permission from students, who also have a right to request that incorrect information be modified. In most other cases, release of information requires written permission (Shiley, 2003).
One of the primary reasons for this law was widespread concern, during the early 1970s, about the potential of the federal government to abuse its power and to implement domestic surveillance. The concern was that governmental information technology has advanced to such a degree that it could be used to identify, observe, and cross-reference "suspicious" persons. A government database, for example, could be used to access student data regarding the direction of study, social or government groups that are identified as potentially harmful to the government and is security. Also, increased media accessibility and technology has brought to light government practices that have been hidden in the past. Hence, the public concern has been raised because of…