The National Design Studio is an executive-branch effort to improve federal websites, including a plan to overhaul thousands of dot-gov sites. Recent reporting has also raised privacy concerns around redesigned or newly operated government websites involving services such as passports, prescription drugs, children’s accounts, and voter registration. The dispute is whether faster, more usable federal websites should be treated mainly as service modernization, or whether any centralized redesign must first satisfy strict privacy impact assessment, records, procurement, cybersecurity, and public-disclosure rules. Better government websites are worth doing, but usability cannot become a shortcut around privacy law.
What privacy standard should apply when the White House redesigns public federal websites?