E-Government Engagement

Government services are increasingly moving online which can lead to more efficiency and greater accessibility. But online services also come with privacy and security risks. This project looks at how citizens manage risks when engaging with e-government resources and what risks exist that they need to manage.

As a simple example, imagine the classic Canadian pothole pictured above. Such potholes exist all over Canada and can cause quite a bit of damage to an unwary driver, bicyclist, or even pedestrian. Finding and fixing such potholes is one of the key jobs of local governments and one that citizens can actively help with by reporting the location and severity of potholes. But what privacy and security risks do they face when doing so? As our research shows, many government issue-reporting websites require that personal contact details be submitted along with the report and they also make use of third party trackers, such as Google Analytics. When we looked into the privacy policies of these websites we found a range of clarity about how provided personal data will be used. The use of third party trackers was also not always spelled out in the privacy policy.

People

• Indrani Ray
• Maria K. Wolters
• Kami Vaniea