Informatica Perspectives

I ran across an interesting article concerning the US initiative to broker data exchange with various EU nations. The intent is to gain greater access to information that would help in the global war on terror.

European governments are entering into these agreements much more readily than they were four, five years ago, because concerns about terrorism are no longer confined to one side of the Atlantic.

The article then highlights the concerns over violation of personal privacy rights and the potential for abuse.

The agreement, which was described by two European officials, also allows for the transmission of "personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinion or religious or other beliefs, trade union membership or information concerning health and sexual life" in cases where they are "particularly relevant to the purposes of this agreement." It defines personal data as "any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person."

The technology challenge can often be so consuming that we devote scarce attention to the ethical issues involved. Data integration and identity resolution technology are continually advancing. By factoring in ethical and moral considerations into the development of the technology, we should be able to support both objectives. Privacy and security do not necessarily need to be requirements that trade off against each other. In terms of identity resolution, the technology easily supports masking of personal attributes. Match results can be delivered independent of the conditions which trigger the match. Personal data used for matching can be stored in a transient manner and safeguarded against open access. etc. etc. I'm sure we can debate the efficacy of the technology towards these objectives. But at least, we should include technology in the debate.

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