Privacy Values

From the 2013 Privacy and Information Security Steering Commitee Report: "Privacy is fundamental to the University. It plays an important role in upholding human dignity and in sustaining a strong and vibrant society. Respecting privacy is an essential part of what it means to be a good citizen, whether as an individual or as an institution. Ensuring such privacy is one of the many values and obligations of the University of California.

"Academic and intellectual freedoms are values of the academy that help further the mission of the University. These freedoms are most vibrant where individuals have autonomy: where their inquiry is free because it is given adequate space for experimentation and their ability to speak and participate in discourse within the academy is possible without intimidation. Privacy is a condition that makes living out these values possible.

"Privacy is also a basis for an ethical and respectful workplace.

"Privacy, together with information security, underpins the University’s ability to be a good steward of the information entrusted to it by its 235,000 students and 185,000 employees, and by its extended community of patients, alumni, donors, volunteers and many others; and obligations in both areas continue to proliferate even as the transparency required of public institutions remains an important cornerstone of the University.

"How privacy is balanced against the many rights, values, and desires of our society is among the most challenging issues of our time."