Potential concerns

There are concerns regarding TC that have been raised about a wide range of issues, including economic-based concerns (such as the potential effect of TC to strengthen monopolies and limit interoperability and competition). However, the focus for this paper is on issues related to the integrity of government-held information and processes.

Because the technology is at an early stage of deployment, it is not possible to determine the consequences of individual aspects of the design - these will only become apparent when the use of the technology is widespread. When this occurs (expected to be over the next 3-5 years), it will be clear how the behaviour of individuals, businesses and governments are changed.

At this stage, we have identified the following five areas of potential concern:

Access to data - DRM, integral with TC, will allow a user to access software and data on their machine only to the extent that such use is consistent with terms and conditions set by a third party - these conditions can be set by the creator of the data and by the software company. Such control could potentially preclude the New Zealand government from having access to its own information.

Privacy - The remote attestation feature of TC will entail a user's computer reporting to a remote system in a reliable and trustworthy fashion. This technology will work only by having each computer assigned a unique identity, which will also provide the potential for breaches of user privacy by software developers.

Long-term management - Long term management of government information produced using TC systems could be dependent on continued use of the technology. If at some stage in the future, one vendor's technology was abandoned in favour of a different system, then historical records may not be able to be decrypted.

Permanence of records - DRM features within TC technology will enable the creator of a digital record to specify that content will disappear after a specific period of time. This is one of a very wide range of controls that will be able to be applied to documents, even after a document has been distributed, and regardless of how many copies were distributed. The implications of government's access to its own records being able to be "turned off", whether intentionally or by accident, are significant.

Legal obligations of agencies - The advent of TC is expected to affect the business processes and legal obligations of agencies in many ways. Issues that need to be considered include legal obligations under legislation such as the Official Information Act, Archives Act, Evidence Act, National Library Act and Evidence Amendment Act.

Annex 1 contains examples, which illustrate some of these risks.