Such a system will facilitate the development of national strategies, and will help to reduce duplicated efforts in planning local-issue strategy. Valuable information stored in the data banks will eventually include libraries of technical aids, legal rights, disability benefits, health and welfare services, financial aid, suitable housing accommodations, accessible buildings, career opportunities, peer counseling services, educational opportunities, training programs and human rights.

Among the more evident risks involved are threats to privacy and freedom of information, further increase of technological dependency, and aggravation of existing social, cultural and economic differences. Only by becoming involved can we hope to influence the development of the technology.

Action:

• Women's groups must begin to set up and control their own data banks.

• Distance educators, in particular, must be supplied with current information on all available technological resources.

• We need an updated catalogue of all courses offered through distance education across the country, and of registration fees.

• Women's groups could ultimately keep a list of women seeking employment, and match it with Manpower data.

Case Studies - Information Abuse

Moderator:
Susan McCrae Vander Voet,
National Coordinator, CCLOW

Panelists:
Victor Schwartzman, Freelance
Writer, "Unemployment
Insurance"

Maureen MacDonald, Community
Legal Worker, Dalhousie
Legal Aid Service, "Tenants'
Black List"

Victor Schwartzman: The information gathered by this panelist indicates that Unemployment Insurance Canada has designed a computerized system, called the Benefit Control Program, which serves to monitor selected claimants. According to the panelist, within this system, all women are singled out for special scrutiny. As such, the system exemplifies sexism embodied in government policy.

Maureen MacDonald: The "Tenants' Black List" consisted of an information system that was set up privately to provide Halifax landlords and other "corporate entities" with information on tenants, collected through such unreliable sources as gossip. Disclosure of the existence of the list led to a public outcry. Through the intervention of a cabinet minister, the service was eventually shut down. It served as a powerful example of information abuse.

Action:

• As individuals and members of organizations, we urgently need to act to protect ourselves from information abuse.