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Obama Job Applications Headed for National Archives

Privacy rules will keep much secret, but applying to government does have perils

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Dec 8, 2008 9:41 AM CST

(Newser) – You know how they say your Facebook page will come back to haunt you? Now imagine if it weren’t just on the Internet, but in the National Archives. That’s the likely destination of personal information submitted by applicants to Barack Obama’s administration, reports Politico. Not to fear, though: A spokeswoman says privacy regulations will protect that picture of you doing Irish car-bombs.

Technically, the responses are Obama’s property, though they become government property once he brings them to the White House. One professor says applicants needn’t worry, much, about information falling into the wrong hands: “Leaks are extremely rare.” Confirms an Archives rep: “There are very clear guidelines that protect people’s privacy. Just because you end up in the National Archives doesn’t mean that it will become public information.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

White House Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel, left, and John Podesta, right, a co-chairman of the transition team, listen offstage during a news conference, in Chicago, Dec. 1, 2008. (AP Photo)

An unidentified National Archives employee pushes a cart of recently declassified personnel files, Aug. 14, 2008. (AP Photo)

William H. Cunliffe, Special Assistant Record Access for the National Archives, looks through a recently declassified file, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008. (AP Photo)

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There may be 10,000 or 15,000 people who fill these things out, but I can think of 10 [million] or 15 million people who’d like to read them.
- Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University

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Obama Job Applications Headed for National Archives