LexisNexis Calls for Development of Effective Rules and Policies to Enable Government Use of Data

WASHINGTON – Kurt Sanford, President and CEO of LexisNexis, a leading provider of legal, news, business information and risk management services, addressed an audience of more than 150 government and private sector professionals on June 8th at the first national LexisNexis symposium on information sharing and data usage at the Ritz Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia. The all-day symposium tackled important issues facing government agencies in the use of private sector data to strengthen national security and enhance public safety, with the discussion focused on such topics as privacy, government regulation, data accuracy, transparency and redress.

“The symposium was a significant part of our effort to assist in the development of rules and guidelines to meet the information sharing mandates of recent laws and presidential directives,” stated Norm Willox, Chief Officer for Privacy, Industry and Regulatory Affairs for LexisNexis. “LexisNexis will continue to provide industry leadership for this national imperative.”

In his keynote address, Sanford focused on government information sharing and use of private sector data from an industry perspective. In addition to Sanford’s remarks, ATF Director Carl Truscott and Pennsylvania State Police Deputy Commissioner of Operations Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Periandi shared with attendees in their keynote remarks law enforcement perspectives on government use of private sector data.

The event was attended by LexisNexis customers in the homeland security, federal law enforcement and intelligence communities who are confronting many of the policy challenges discussed at the symposium as they develop information sharing programs and systems within their own agencies. One of the goals of the symposium was to engage industry leaders and government professionals working on these programs in a dialogue on how to establish effective policies and rules for government use of commercial data.

“Technology has often outpaced government policies,” said Thomas Regan, Executive Director for Privacy and Regulatory Affairs for LexisNexis. “Trusted information sharing programs require policies that enable effective and proportional data use while simultaneously protecting individual privacy rights.”

In addition to the keynote addresses, more than 20 privacy and policy experts, academics, former and current government officials, and private sector thought leaders led discussions within the framework of four panels, highlighting the following:

• The various types of government programs that are dependent on private sector data, including those programs that deal with counterterrorism risk assessment, container security, protection of critical infrastructure, fraud prevention and anti-money laundering;

• The use of technology to enable both privacy and security, such as in promoting anonymization, establishment of trusted enclaves and security envelopes and enforcement of identity authentication protocols;

• The various means of promoting privacy protections including additional legislation, industry-wide principles and the operation of market forces; and

• The indispensable need for program transparency to develop public trust balanced against the need to protect essential security components from disclosure.