[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 99 (Tuesday, May 23, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29642-29643]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-7833]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Request for Information: Voluntary Storage of Personal Data in
Preparation for Emergencies
AGENCY: Department of Health and Human Services.
ACTION: Request for information.
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SUMMARY: To improve emergency preparedness, response and recovery
efforts, HHS invites public comment on the availability or feasibility
of private sector services through which individuals could voluntarily
submit their personal information for storage so that they, their
family members, or other designated individuals could access the
information in an emergency. HHS invites all comments, suggestions,
recommendations, and creative ideas on the establishment of voluntary
nationwide services that can best offer this capability. This Request
for Information (RFI) is intended to provide a synthesis of ideas for
consideration, and it is not intended to be part of any procurement
process.
DATES: Responses should be submitted to the Department of Health and
Human Services on or before 5 p.m., EDT, July 24, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Electronic responses are preferred and should be addressed
to [email protected]. Written responses will also be
accepted. Please send to: Department of Health and Human Services, Room
434E, 200 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20201, Attention:
IMDA RFI Response.
A copy of this RFI is also available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.hhs.gov/emergency/rfi/. Please follow the instructions for
submitting responses.
Public Access: This RFI and all responses will be made available to
the public in the HHS Public Reading Room, 200 Independence Avenue,
SW., Washington, DC. Please call 202-690-7453 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
EDT to arrange access to the Public Reading Room. The RFI and all
responses will also be made available on the World Wide Web at http://www.hhs.gov/emergency/rfi/. Any information you submit, including
addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and personally identifiable
information, will be made public. Do not send proprietary, commercial,
financial, business confidential, trade secret, or personal information
that should not be made public.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Helga Rippen, Secretary's
Transformation Action Team for Preparedness, 202-690-7100.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were two of the
most devastating hurricanes ever recorded, affecting approximately
90,000 square miles and 1.5 million people. The hurricane and flooding
caused the evacuation of the city of New Orleans, marking the first
time a major American city has been completely evacuated. More than
700,000 households have received rental assistance from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, and more than 1.4 million families (over 4
million people) received emergency financial assistance from the
American Red Cross. The hurricane did not discriminate among
businesses, governments, and not-for-profit institutions: financial
institutions, healthcare facilities, local courthouses, and academic
institutions alike suffered devastating destruction. In many cases,
significant personal and institutional records were lost.
In response to the loss and destruction of important documents
experienced by the survivors of these hurricanes, the White House
report, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned,
recommended that the Federal government work with the private sector to
encourage the development of a capacity to voluntarily store and
retrieve personal information that would be useful in the event of a
natural or manmade disaster, such as an earthquake, flood, pandemic
influenza, or terrorist event. Specifically, the report recommended
that the Federal government should:
encourage the private sector development of a capability for
individuals to voluntarily submit their personal identifying
information for virtual storage that citizens and their families
could access during emergencies. The capability is best thought of
as a 21st century version of a bank vault, with virtual safe deposit
boxes for information. Disaster victims could access the virtually
stored data to apply for Federal assistance, medical treatment, or
insurance benefits. Because of the sensitivity of the personal data
stored, strict privacy limitations and protections would be
required.
Appendix A, Recommendation 66, at page 107. The White House report,
The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, is
available on the
[[Page 29643]]
Web at http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/hurricane/.
This Request for Information is a first step in understanding the
availability or feasibility of such services and how the Federal
government might encourage citizens to voluntarily maintain critical
information so that it can be accessed easily during an emergency. This
Request for Information is not intended as a prelude to any procurement
by the Federal government. Rather, it is intended to elicit suggestions
from members of the public about capabilities that should be considered
for maintaining personal information and to provide ideas for
consideration as to how to encourage individuals and the private sector
to take action in preparation for emergencies.
In particular, HHS seeks to understand the roles and
responsibilities of individuals who provide and maintain this
information, including the relationship between custodians and
individuals who use their services. Respondents should differentiate
between capabilities that already exist and those which are planned or
desirable in the future.
A separate Request for Information will be published in the Federal
Register seeking input about the availability or feasibility of
electronic benefits services for disaster victims that would facilitate
the provision of Federal, state, local, and non-governmental human
assistance programs in an efficient manner.
HHS encourages all potentially interested parties--individuals,
consumer groups, associations, governments, non-governmental
organizations, and commercial entities--to respond. To facilitate
review of the responses, please reference the question number in your
response.
Questions for Response
1. Approach, Finance, Sustainability, and Roles
a. What models and options are currently available that provide or
support the capability to provide ready access to critical documents
during or following an emergency?
b. What models and options should be available, that are currently
not available, to provide this service? Describe how this approach or
model would work and illustrate with examples where useful.
c. How will such a service be made accessible to those it is
intended to help?
d. How would accessibility for persons with special needs (e.g.
persons with disabilities, persons who are not proficient in English)
be ensured?
e. What ownership, management, governance, financing, and
sustainability issues arise as a result of the recommended approach,
and how should these issues be resolved?
f. How should the effort(s) be funded? Who should pay for the
service and infrastructure?
2. Function, Capabilities, and Performance
a. What types of information do you view as relevant, necessary, or
useful to access in an emergency (e.g., birth certificates, wills,
medical information)? Of these types of information, which would be
easy to deposit with the type of service contemplated in this Request
for Information (RFI), which would be difficult, and why?
b. What is the best approach for storage and retrieval of this
information?
c. What limits should there be on the availability of information
via the service contemplated by this RFI, and how should those limits
be implemented?
d. What are the necessary features, capabilities, and attributes of
the service contemplated by this RFI?
e. How should this service support disaster survivors in providing
documentation necessary to obtain Federal, local, and non-governmental
disaster relief benefits?
f. What are the performance requirements of the service or the
system that supports it?
g. What disclosures should be required and under what circumstances
or conditions would such disclosures be made?
3. Rights, Rules, Responsibilities, and Enforcement
a. Whom do you view as the interested parties? How should
interested parties interact? What are their roles and responsibilities?
b. What is an inappropriate disclosure? Who has liability for
inappropriate or unlawful disclosures, or harms that come as a result
of storage of personal data?
c. What enforcement mechanisms are appropriate to protect
information, and who should be responsible for enforcement?
d. What rights should individuals who deposit their information
have with respect to the custodian?
e. What rights should be assigned to custodians providing the
service?
f. What data disclosure laws and policies should apply? Who will
have access to the information, and under what circumstances?
g. What other types of rules should apply to the service?
h. What legal implications are there, if any, of storing electronic
copies of important documents and making them available via such a
service to those permitted to receive the information? If there are
impediments, how should they be overcome? (For example, how will the
contents of documents be authenticated?)
i. If residents of one State are permitted to store their documents
in another State, how would protections travel across States?
4. Security and Standards
a. What administrative, technical, and physical security approaches
should be considered?
b. What security standards mechanisms, if any, should be adopted by
or imposed on the custodians?
c. How will access and authentication controls be implemented?
d. What technical, data, format, or performance standards should be
considered?
e. How will the identity of the individual requesting information
be verified?
5. Potential Federal Roles
a. What role, if any, should the Federal government play in
encouraging the development of services whereby individuals can
voluntarily deposit their personal identifying information for access
during or following an emergency?
b. What role, if any, should the Federal government play in
encouraging citizens to voluntarily collect and store their personal
information for access during or following an emergency?
Please feel free to add any other comments, suggestions, or
creative ideas to your response.
Issued on May 17, 2006.
Charles Havekost,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology and Chief
Information Officer.
[FR Doc. E6-7833 Filed 5-22-06; 8:45 am]
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