Protection or Privacy? Data Mining and Personal Data

Abstract

In order to run countries and economies effectively, governments and governmental institutions need to collect and analyse vast amounts of personal data. Similarly, health service providers, security services, transport planners, and education authorities need to know a great deal about their clients. And, of course, commercial operations run more efficiently and can meet the needs of their customers more effectively the more they know about them. In general then, the more data these organisation have, the better. On the other hand, the more private data which is collated and disseminated, the more individuals are at risk of crimes such as identity theft and financial fraud, not to mention the simple invasion of privacy that such data collection represents. Most work in data mining has concentrated on the positive aspects of extracting useful information from large data sets. But as the technology and its use advances so more awareness of the potential downside is needed. In this paper I look at some of these issues. I examine how data mining tools and techniques are being used by governments and commercial operations to gain insight into individual behaviour. And I look at the concerns that such advances are bringing.