Privacy concerns escalate with improved information sharing
As we gain greater ability to share information, the fear of misuse of the information increases exponentially. What is perceived as a great asset to law enforcement arouses the concerns of many about the potential for abuse. The most striking example is the Matrix project in which 13 states participated in a project to aggregate what is generaly publicly available data into a repository to be used only for criminal investigative purposes. Now only 5 states remain engaged, as Wisconsin and New York recently dropped out of the project. What started as a project law enforcment agencies perceived to be extremely helpful became a political liability and led 8 of the states to reconsider.
This is not the only example of systems with apparent good intentions to improve investigative capabilities that then become targets for privacy advocates and end up being killed by their failure to anticipate the backlash. The difficulty of getting access to court and other records that reside in paper repositories allowed people to have a level of comfort that this information would not become readily available for abusive purposes. Until high levels of integration and the construction of corresponding data warehouses became possible, nobody gave a lot of thought to this problem.
Privacy concerns should be at the center of the design of any large scale justice information system, if for no other reason then to anticipate problems that may be raised and that could end up de-railing the best of intentions. The best approach to system design will anticipate the potential objections to the system and build in the protections that will be acceptable to those who fear its misuse. New technologies such as digital rights management and strong authentication/authorization based on provable identity management will help defuse the debate, but the policies about use and control of access have to be clear about the protections that must be incorporated in the system design, lest the well designed system perish.
9:38:08 PM 
|
