Slashdot Mirror
Michigan Police Misuse Electronic Database
Pointing to this Detroit Free PRess article, Pat writes: "The lead paragraph says it all:' Police throughout Michigan, entrusted with the personal and confidential information in a state law enforcement database, have used it to stalk women, threaten motorists and settle scores.' Gotta love these databases." Considering a lot of people have access to ever-consolidating databases about your personal life, this is the sort of thing I plan to point to the next time I hear accusations of paranoia.
By this I mean the story about the Michigan Police, but now that I have your attention, check out this apparently hidden story http://slashdot.org/articles/01/07/30/1558227.shtm l about how the DoD released something and then decided that it was classified and they're threating MIT and a professor there about it.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Too bad this didn't make the cut for the front page. It's exactly this kind of shit that makes massive databases so problematic.
FYI, this was a two part series. Part two can be found here.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
I disagree ... give any group of people this power, and they would abuse it. I can't think of any group of people that doesn't have some bad eggs.
The reason I bring this up is because it is a case where there is a clear technical solution ... control the data, and let police officers know that their queries will be audited to make sure they are using the data properly.
Imagine if your workplace allowed anybody to view the payroll. Imagine the chaos that would ensue. This is what happens to the police (or anybody) when you give them uncontrolled access to anything like this.
Jack Valenti and the MPAA are to technology as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone
Creating a database - as in the FBI's database on criminals - gives the owner leverage which can be used against those in the database. Linked databases create a more powerful database - which means more power. Combining the FBI's database with the IRS' database produces interesting results.
Privacy is increasingly an illusion. If people don't know what you're up to, it's because they don't want to take the time to find out.
What can be done to stop this trend? Probably nothing. Information will be increasingly available to more and more people. Recall the hacker ethic - "Information wants to be free." This has dangerous implications for your continued privacy. What if information really was free? What if everyone could know everything that you were up to? What if you had no privacy at all?
These are important issues for society to address. Should we expect better behavior from our police forces? Should we expect better behavior from the average citizen?
They say that people who live in glass houses ought not throw bricks. It seems like these days we're all living in glass houses. Only some of us don't yet realize it.