Willis Ware´s Lasting Contribution to Privacy: Fair Information Practices

It has often been said that reports by commissions and advisory committees end up gathering dust on a shelf. Advisory committee reports typically have little influence because they´re too often untimely, uncreative, vision-free, or unbalanced. Presidents and agencies order reports to put off a problem too hot to handle, and by the time the committee finishes, the problem is no longer urgent. This wasn´t the case for Willis Ware´s advisory committee. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare advisory committee that he chaired from 1972 to 1973 produced one of the most influential reports of its type. The committee invented the notion of Fair Information Practices (FIPs), which became the single most important concept in privacy all around the world for more than 40 years.