Thursday - October 07, 2004

In My World

National Security Database: A Very Bad Idea On this matter, I am an expert witness. I do databases for a living. I live, eat, sleep and breathe databases 24/7. For the last eighteen years that is all I have done. I have installed, configured and maintained databases for Fortune 500 companies and several government agencies, including the Department Of Defense and the Department Of Energy, to name a few. Oracle, DB2, Informix, Sybase are all database companies that I deal with on a regular basis, especially Oracle. With all that said, let me make this perfectly clear ....

Senate bill S.2845 (National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004) has a provision in it that would let government counter-terrorist investigators instantly query a massive system of interconnected commercial and government databases that hold billions of records on Americans.

This is a very bad idea. Let me repeat. This is a very bad idea. Got that?

Why? Because the government wants to make use of a tool that companies have been increasingly using more and more over the last decade. This tool is called “Business Intelligence”. What is it? It is an analysis tool that examines data stored in data warehouses and recognizes patterns that allow businesses to make better marketing decisions. For example, how many of you have a “shopping card” from your local grocery store or pharmacy? Almost all of you, I’d bet. You flash it at the store when you buy something and you get a 10-20% discount on purchases. That’s a good deal, isn’t it?  Your local CVS pharmacy or Kroger food store simply asks you to fill out a form giving them your address and a little personal information about yourself and in return they give you hefty discounts on purchases. That sounds like a sweet deal, right? Well, it is until you start getting unrequested mail from various companies asking you to sample their products or you find that the products you normally buy have been moved to opposite sides of the store requiring you to travel across the entire store to make your normal purchases (and increase the chance you’ll buy other items on your trek).

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

OK, here is the bottom line: these companies are peeking into your mind and examining your habits, based on your buying preferences. Every time you visit the store, your purchases are recorded and stored in a massive data warehouse (a specialized kind of database). They are using that information to increase their business and you are helping them by letting them track your purchases. Now, apply that same approach to government. Do you really want the federal government (a.k.a. “The Nanny State") being able to gather information about your movements, locations, habits, purchases, registrations, etc.? Even more, do you really want the federal government examining all of that information with complex analysis tools that recognize patterns about your behavior?

Yes, it might help identify terrorists before they strike .... but it could also be used for other bad purposes as well. There are endless possibilities for database systems and analysis tools like this to be misused, particularly when government bureaucrats get involved. I’m not trying to scare you with a “possible” bogey man. This bogey man is real and businesses are already using these tools to get into your private life. What makes you think the government will do any less?

And one more thing .... as one of my old Computer Science professors told me ages ago, the only 100% secure computer system is one that has been unplugged from everything, locked in a safe, dropped in the deepest trench in the ocean and guarded by a fleet of nuclear submarines .... and even that is not always enough. From personal experience, I can tell you that he was dead right on the money.

So what can you do? Well, if the idea scares you too then write your Senator before they pass this legislation. Otherwise, you could have no privacy left in a few years. They will know everything about you. Voting patterns, buying habits, travel plans, income, expenses, liquidity, gun registrations, police records, medical history, etc. The list goes on and on. And with the proper business intelligence tools they can even figure out how often you change underwear and whether you pick your nose. No, really.

Think about it .... do you want George Orwell’s chilling prediction in his book ”1984” to come true? .... Big Brother Is Watching You

If so, all you have to do is sit back and do nothing ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/07/2004 at 11:01 AM   
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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