Government databases are a subset of public
records. Because they store large quantities of information and make
it relatively accessible, government databases are particularly susceptible
to threatening privacy. Databases are created by governments to serve many
entirely laudable goals. This does not diminish their privacy-invading
potential, however, and the growth in government databases has created some
disturbing trends.
One such trend is the proclivity of governments to enlist private business
as a functionary in crime fighting and social control. Businesses have a
great deal of personal information about citizens. They will divulge it to
governments without objecting the way citizens would if they were asked to
divulge information about themselves directly.
Unlike other databases, those in the hands of governments can be redeployed
contrary to the wishes and interests of citizens about whom the information
was originally collected. The information can be used to violate privacy, and
worse, while denying citizens any recourse. Governments have a natural, but
unfortunate tendency to expand the uses they make of databases, sometimes
quite adventurously. Only the best example of this was the use of census data
to round up Americans of Japanese ancestry and intern them during World War II.
The existence of a growing network of government databases puts dangerous
incentives on criminal investigators. With so much information about individuals
available to them, investigators may fall into the convenient trap of
investigating people instead of crimes. In other words, they may fix on particular
individuals and look for information to substantiate that they have committed
crime, rather than investigating crimes to find out who was the perpetrator.
Finally, the General Accounting Office has found many U.S. government databases
to be substantially insecure. Especially given how comprehensive they tend to be,
these databases are ripe targets for people who may collect information from them
and use it to harm citizens.
Links:
The Feds and Your Privacy by
Lucas Mast, Cato Institute (September 27, 2000)
Report Card on Computer Security at Federal Departments and Agencies
Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology (September 11, 2000)
Computer Security: How Vulnerable Are Federal Computers? Testimony
of Solveig Singleton, Director of Information Studies, Cato Institute, before a hearing
of the Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology (September 11,
2000)
Computer
Security: Critical Federal Operations and Assets Remain at Risk General
Accounting Office (September 11, 2000)
Social
Security Site Shut Down by Rebecca Vesely, Wired (April 9, 1997)
Comments? comments@privacilla.org
(Subject: GovernmentDatabases)
[updated 9/27/00]
