Modern ICT offers government many tempting opportunities to speed up work processes, increase the effectiveness and efficiency of policy, offer better and more customised services, and lighten the load of bureaucratic paperwork. The aim is to make government streamlined, digital and service-minded while at the same time satisfying the citizen and ‘client’. In addition, ICT is increasingly being used in policymaking in the care sector and in the interest of public safety and international security. New systems and their interconnections are meant to make both the community and the world a safer place for the citizen. Indeed, innovative use of the new technology is rapidly becoming a cornerstone of modern government policy in every area of service, care and control. At the same time, the dynamic nature of ICT influences the ‘rules of the game’, whether that means the rules that apply to the interaction between government and the citizen, between different government organisations, or between government and private parties. Information is exchanged between organisations and crosses the boundaries between the public and private sectors without proper consideration being given to the implications for the citizen and the authorities. More and more often, government bases its dealings with citizens on profiling and the information that it has gathered, leaving those same citizens powerless and empty-handed if the information is incorrect or is incorrectly interpreted. Furthermore, government is often seemingly unwilling or unable to set limits to its own appetite for collecting data: it is more likely to find reasons to gather more information than to curb its own curiosity.

When it comes to new technology and, in particular, the information flows that new technology generates, government has a double responsibility. On the one hand, it must explore new tools, technological innovations and information flows to determine whether they can improve government policy. On the other, it must also prevent any foreseen and unforeseen side effects of the new information tools from harming citizens (Buruma 2011). The deployment of ICT and the associated information flows in policymaking are never without wider consequences. A purely instrumentalist approach to technology is therefore naive at best and harmful at worst.