The Computer and Personal Privacy, Part I: The Individual Under Assault
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047675 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| Pages | 23-31 |
| Author | Michael Rogers Rubin |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The Computer and Personal Privacy, Part I:
The Individual Under Assault
Michael Rogers Rubin
The tremendous advancements that have
recently occurred in computer technology,
including central processing speed and
low-cost, high-density mass storage,
provide great potential benefits for
individuals and for society. However,
enhanced computer capabilities also can
pose a major threat to individuals,
if misused by governmental agencies,
corporations, organized crime, and other
entities. A number of computer-based
systems currently pose a threat to
individual freedoms. This threat
can increase greatly in the future
if vigilant oversight is not constantly
directed toward the control and
prevention of misuse of databases.
This is the first of three articles
that will address the issues of personal
privacy and the threat of the computer.
Thinking to get at once all the gold
the goose could give, he killed it and
opened it only to find--nothing.
Aesop, The Goose with the Golden Eggs
There is no drama in the computer-based attack
on personal privacy that is now underway in the
United States. There is no sudden flash and thunder-
clap,
followed by a slowly rising mushroom cloud.
There is only the slow and steady grinding down
of individuals, like so many kernels of wheat milled
down to a fine grain. Where then do we begin
the description of the attack?
There is material enough to fill a book of
instances where people have been harmed by the
use of unfair or wrong information. But while
this type of horror story has its place, we really
gain very little through the repetition of one such
tale after another. What we really need is an under-
standing of the patterns and mechanics of the attack
on the individual. We must begin first with the
basic understanding that patterns do indeed exist,
and that we are victims of carefully designed systems
of information gathering and sharing. This is not
an article about unseen "conspiracies" that are
operating against us. We are like the proverbial
drug dealer of the 1970s, for whether we are para-
noid or not, "they" really are still after us.
Some of the computer systems now threatening
personal privacy have been developed by govern-
ments, and others have been developed by businesses
trying to earn profits. Those created by governments
owe their birth to conscious "policy making" decisions.
Those created by business have usually been the
creature of entrepreneurs sensing market oppor-
Rubin is currently practicing as an attorney
and economist. The views expressed in this article
are strictly his own. He is principal author of
The Knowledge Industry in the United States,
1960-1980, which was recently published by Prin-
ceton University Press. He has also authored In-
formation Economics and Policy in the United
States, Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1983.
ISSUE 17 23
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