Information Policy Disputes in Iceland SVEINN OLAFSSON* A BSTRACT This article discusses information policy disputes in Iceland in the last years. Information policy in Iceland has three main strands. The ¢rst is the policy laid out by the govern- ment in1995 and1996, mainly de¢ning the public sector as a buyer of information services. This policy gave the new in- formation industries wide berth to make them better suited to create new jobs.Within that broad policy, individual min- istries had scope to form their own policies.The Ministry for Education, Culture and Science has used the opportunity to subscribe nationally to a host of databases. The second strand is the Health Sector Database which sprang from a business idea and has been controversial ever since. The third strand is personal data protection and privacy, where Iceland follows Europe closely. Since the main ¢eld of dis- pute has been the formation of the Health Sector Database, a great part of the article discusses legal, ethical and social questions concerning that database. r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd I NTRODUCTION Up to 1995, the Icelandic government did not present a coherent infor- mation policy, but rather a combination of issues and directives. By1995, however, information technology and software development had begun to play a signi¢cant part in the economy. The government, as a buyer and provider of information technology and information services, re- acted by developing an information policy by a manifesto, later to be outlined by four departments. This policy was, in the spirit of the new government, laisser-faire. It followed, rather than led, reacted to rather than was proactive to, events that had already taken place. At *National and University Library of Iceland, Arngrimsgata 3,107 Reykjavik, Iceland. 1057^2317/02/010079+17$35.00/0 r 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd Intl. Inform. & Libr. Rev. (2002), 34,79^95 doi:10.1006/iilr.2002.0185 Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on