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Privacy and Electronic Benefits Transfer
Electronic Benefits Transfer programs such as the Lone Star Card allow the government the ability to monitor and track high volumes of program and client data. Although access to large amounts of data can help detect and defer fraud, it also raises concerns about the privacy of welfare clients. With the technological resources of an EBT program, an agency can track clients’ shopping and spending patterns. This data is in addition to the information that benefit programs have always collected regarding their clients' identity, such as where they live, how many dependents they have and their Social Security numbers. The fact that this information is now stored in electronic, digital databases warrants consideration of privacy protections.
Although the State of Texas maintains the confidentiality of EBT records, and the system has been audited to assure it has the highest level of security, this is not conclusive proof that a client's privacy will always remain protected. Information pirates, or hackers, could prey on an individual's welfare record. Information "leaks," caused by human error, incompetence,or deliberate unauthorized use, are possible. Moreover, the technology permits the monitoring of an individual's behavior in addition to cross-referencing this data with data in other electronic databases. While the State's standard of confidentiality may provide the client with the assumption that their privacy is being protected, that assumption cannot be fully guaranteed.
The key to understanding privacy in the EBT context, as with any other information technology, is that personal identity lies at the heart of the matter. Information on individuals and their shopping patterns is generated within an EBT program. By associating a client's name to each transaction, EBT provides the conditions for trespassing upon individuals' privacy.
Program managers can recognize clients' rights to privacy and take steps to safeguard those rights. When designing EBT programs, policymakers should approach the programs from two perspectives: one that secures the program from fraudulent use, and one that keeps the privacy interests of the clients in mind. The use of privacy enhancing technologies, or PETs, can be part of an EBT system. There are PETs available that can secure and protect the identity of an EBT user while keeping the purpose of the EBT program intact. Using these techniques and technologies, clients' privacy rights can be balanced appropriately with taxpayers' interests in aggressive protection against fraud.
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