Confidential Case
Introduction
Maintaining the privacy of confidential and personally identifiable information within the Federal service, from disclosure to unauthorized personnel, is significantly important. In order to avoid any form of victimization it is critical to safeguard any sensitive information pertaining to all levels of the government, federal employees and the public. To a degree, the Privacy Act of 1974 supports the governments claim of fair information practices. This paper is an examination of the federal employee’s privacy concerns as it applies to the United States Federal Services’ Declaration for Federal Employment and supplemental forms. Secondly the paper will take a look at normative ethical gaps found in federal application process and lastly prove how the process is limited as it relates to covering the privacy of candidates and its workforce.
The Declaration for Federal Employment and its supporting supplemental forms serves the purposes of determining a candidate’s eligibility for Federal employment “as allowed by law or Presidential order” (opm.gov, 2011). The forms function as a set of documents for consent, or employee agreement forms. They are composed as questionnaires that contain a laundry list of required personal identifiable information which also include financial and medical information. The applicant’s information is susceptible “to release and review by law enforcement agencies; other individuals and organizations to investigators; personnel specialists; and other authorized employees or representatives of the Federal Government” (opm.gov, 2011). This within and of itself contains a potentially uncontrollable reviewing board if left unmonitored. An individual who is on the reviewing board, at any given point during their review of a candidate’s application, could make an unethical claim against the applicant and thus adversely effect the individual’s lively hood.
Normative ethics is defined as “that part of moral philosophy,