The study of database design must address privacy concerns
| Published date | 01 August 2006 |
| Date | 01 August 2006 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14779960680000289 |
| Pages | 155-161 |
| Author | Florence Appel |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
The study of database design must address
privacy concerns
INTRODUCTION
As organizations increasingly depend on electronic
databases to support routine business functions,
their treatment of personal data is causing public
concern about the erosion of personal privacy.
Privacy advocacy groups have taken on the dual
responsibilities of exerting political pressure for
stronger regulations and encouraging consumers to
protect themselves against poor privacy practices
and identity theft. Yet reports of privacy abuses
abound.
Database designers, those computer profession-
als responsible for developing database systems to
meet client needs, should be proactive in their pro-
tection of personal data. By attending to privacy
issues throughout the database design process,
rather than relegating them to afterthought status
when time and cost factors are likely to be prohib-
itive, designers can ensure the creation of databases
that are protective of personal privacy, and unlike-
ly to be used as vehicles of privacy abuse. To
prepare students to become privacy-sensitive data-
base design professionals, academic computer sci-
ence programs should integrate privacy content
into the design thread of their database courses. To
do this well, resources for database educators with
no background in the teaching of computer ethics
must be provided, and the privacy content must be
introduced in a way that enhances the technical and
theoretical core of the course. Both of these chal-
lenges can be met.
THE NATURE OF ELECTRONIC DATA
GATHERING TODAY
Electronic databases are created and maintained by
every major public and private sector organization
in the world today. Government agencies and cor-
porations explain that, in order to provide accept-
able levels of service to their increasing and more
widespread constituencies, they have abandon-
ed their reliance on paper-based, face-to-face
Info, Comm & Ethics in Society (2006) 3: 155-161
© 2006 Troubador Publishing Ltd.
Florence Appel
Department of Computer Science, Saint Xavier University, Chicago, IL, USA
Email: appel@sxu.edu
The proliferation of electronic databases has given rise to many practices and occurrences that pose serious threats to
personal privacy. This paper argues that attention to privacy should be an integral part of the database design process,
and that database designers are uniquely positioned to ensure that this happens. To motivate students to become pri-
vacy-conscious database design professionals, computer science programs must meet the challenges of implementing
an “ethics across the curriculum” methodology to integrate privacy content throughout the design thread of the intro-
ductory database course.
Keywords: privacy, databases, ethics across the curriculum, computer ethics education, professional ethics
VOL 4 NO 3 JULY 2006 155
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