Mary Fisher wrote:

Yup just like now, only without the safguards of multiple incompatible
distributed and non connected databases that limit the scope of an error,
and provide alternative routes to perform sanity checks and consistency
checks on the data when something goes wrong.


Can you put that into Plain English please?

Seemed plain enough as it was... which bit are you having difficulty with?

"Multiple / distributed" - there are lots of places where data are
stored about us. These databases are not centralised. E.g. the
information held on the passport database is not in the same place as
that relating to your drivers license or your birth certificate.

"non connected" - a change made to information in one place does not
automatically propagate through to all the others.

"incompatible" - data are held on various systems ranging from paper to
electronic. Since this is not a monoculture, it impossible for a single
type of activity / error to compromise all these systems in one go.

Hence if an error were made (or someone tampered) with your passport
details, you would have several options available to you to correct the
error. The fallibility of the information systems is understood and
abilities to deal with it are built into the processes. The database is
not always right.

Also don't forget the new scope for data mining exercises correlating your
innocent behaviour to that of a known problem groups.


And that.

Data mining, is the process of running statistical analysis and AI/fuzzy
logic pattern recognition techniques against large data sets with the
intention of discovering previously unknown relationships and
causalities within the data.

More detailed descriptions he

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_mining

One novel example would be the suicide predictor used in some
underground stations via their CCTV systems. By performing data mining
exercises against CCTV footage of people who threw themselves in front
of trains, they have produced algorithms that can detect patterns of
behaviour the frequently preceded a suicide attempt of this nature. The
computer system attempts to give early warning to staff that this may be
about to happen.

However the process can be used against any large data set to attempt to
find a predicate for all sorts of behaviours or outcomes. Hence armed
with your national ID register and its collected data of everyone's
movements and transactions (financial or otherwise) you can set about
identifying the predicates for all sorts of unwanted behaviour like
benefit fraud or terrorism for example.

You can see the tantalising prospects for the powers that be. The
technology vendors will only help to encourage them in this line of
thought.

The difficulty however is this is not an exact science. Even if you do
find a way of identifying some individuals who will go on to commit a
crime (or have escaped detection in the past), you can't help but sweep
many innocents into the net in the same action. You are also into the
rather questionable process of arresting people for what your think they
might be about to do (football hooliganism legislation anyone?).


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/