A Massive Database
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A Massive DatabaseHave you heard about the new OneDOJ database being assembled in the US these days? Supposedly it's a massive database with lots of information on various cases that have occurred in the US. It should allow local law enforcement to easily search for information on individuals. It's supposedly got 1 million cases and is supposed to triple over the next couple years.
Maybe I can offer some assistance to the reporters out there looking to write about databases. I'm not sure 1, 2, or 3 million cases qualifies as a massive database. I guess there could be lots of documentation, perhaps even everything imaged, but I still wouldn't call that massive. It would need a lot of disk space, but searching probably isn't too taxing.
It does concern me, however, from a data quality point of view. I've had the unfortunate luck to be stopped by the police a few times, usually for something minor. One of my headlights was out a few months ago and an officer stopped me, asking for my license and taking it away to check for warrants, etc.
The officer came back and had a list of 3 other "Steve Jones" that had various issues and wanted to check me out. How she verifies or accepts me denying them, I'm not sure, but none of them were me. I gave her my SSN, though I didn't have the card to verify things. I was let go with a warning, but I wonder what would have happened if one of the other Mr Jones was wanted for murder or some other heinous crime?
Data issues occur on a regular basis. I've had them happen in my credit reports as well, which are databases that are likely more massive than the OneDOJ database. My concern if there is one central database everyone relies on then we'll have issues getting mistakes resolved.
It's a good idea in theory, but I'm not so sure that I want it implemented in practice. At least not with some appeals, oversight from independent authority, and only as a means to invite further research. It shouldn't be the end source for the police.
Steve Jones
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The move to have a centralised government database containing an individual's digital ID, biometric information, tax & benefits details, and criminal record is happening just about all over the developed world. It marks a profound change in the way governments will operate, with many countries ending up with a population of suspects, not citizens.
A lot of governments promote these schemes on the basis that they will reduce crime and terrorism. I fear the reality is they become a bonanza for organised crime.
Many national digitial ID schemes are based on the same RFID-based technology that is being used for the international digitial passport system. We have seen with Internet Explorer that an electronic monoculture becomes a prime target for hackers, so the only reasonable expectation is that digitial ID schemes will be hacked at about the same time as they are implemented. People have already shown working hacks that read all digitial passport details, so criminals will surely get as many digitial passports and ID cards as they want.
Even assuming that the cards themselves are secure, all someone needs to do is write to a fake card what the scanner wants to read. The scanner systems are not going to be replaced every 3 years with new technology - the system will need a planned life of maybe 20 years to justify the rollout costs. It will not be long before kids wanting a free ride on public transport use their pocket RFID scanner to capture the ID of someone exiting a bus, write the details to a fake card, and enter the bus charging the previous passenger for the journey.
So, Steve, when you get stopped in 5 year's time, maybe one thing to do is to capture the officer's electronic ID with yours as they walk up to your car and hope the similarity of names is not noticed...
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
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One of the reasons the US republic has been so successful is that the government was founded on the notion that people have inherent inalienable rights that are non-revokable by the government. For the life of the country and still today the vast majority of the people from top to bottom that run the day to day operations of our country buy into the notion that humankind is created in the image of God. This creation story is what I call the core ethic of the Judeo-Christian ethic. There is this prevailing notion in our Republic that every human being has inherent worth and dignity. Corrollary to this is a basic respect for every others inherent freedoms. This foundation has been a catalyst to risk taking, growth, and prosperity on a scale unknown in the history of the world. As long as this underlying notion that we are all created in God's image exist in America, I have no fear of the government and the bureaucracy that guides it day to day.
I would greatly fear a powerful government that doesn't have a proper understanding of God and man. Witness atheistic Communism in the early 20th century. Solzhenitsyn estimates that this government killed about 66 million of its own people either through execution or a slowly starving slavery in the gulag between 1917 and 1954. Other examples both historical and recent abound. Even today I hold little hope for a democracy or republic in Iraq. As I understand it, Islam does not hold the basic notion that man is created in God's image. I am preplexed as to how they philosophize a respect for the inherent dignity and worth of all humanity, Muslim or otherwise.
This doesn't mean that the US government will not be bumbling and inept from time to time - just not overwhelmingly oppressive on a vast scale. We still need to participate in and monitor such things as national identity systems to thwart the bumbling and inept.
And finally we need to continue to salt the government with a basic regard for humanity inherited from the foundational relationship between God and man.
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not sure I understand the last post ?? Here in the uK we have a number of "large" databases sponsored by government for various reasons, many are "developed" by US companies, usually run well over budget, well over time and usually don't work and have to be scrapped for another version. Not that the UK companies are much better, as example a new system for the Health service which will hold medical details on all uk residents, or it may do .. there's already concerns about external access and use for direct marketing.
It sort of makes sense to allow access to distributed data centrally, we've had various cases concerning non-centralised storage of police data which may or may not have prevented crimes had the data been better available .. it's both a difficult and contentious subject, often not helped by public perceptions of how this information might be used - like your multiple names, the problem comes when the "system" or "data" is believed over obvious reality, for example some of the amusing incidents over the use of sat nav, which I'm sure you must have in the US too.
It's also difficult to sometimes correct data which is held incorrectly!!
[font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/ -
This foundation has been a catalyst to risk taking, growth, and prosperity on a scale unknown in the history of the world. As long as this underlying notion that we are all created in God's image exist in America, I have no fear of the government and the bureaucracy that guides it day to day.
Horrendous intrusions into human rights have been done in the name of God. Much better to keep government operation based on rational open debate than an arbitrary interpretation du jour of some holy book.
What we have also learned is that government power will be exploited regardless of the philosophy of those in power. The only safeguard is strict limits on power.
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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I'm in Australia and we've had a "debate" lately about "THE" national identity card. At the moment there are several cards and numbers issued by the government, such as Medicare, Tax File Numbers (every Aussie has these first two), Dept of Veteran Affairs (ie, for war pensions), Centrelink numbers (Dole/Unemployed benefits, youth allowance, assistance to work, etc)... All of these numbers grant some sort of benefit and require a distinct card. The granting of a benefit has tax implications.
The single national card should help the left hand of government know what the right hand is doing. Unfortunately, scaremongering, amongst other things, is putting people off such a simplified system.
I agree that there needs to be oversight, and, particularly in the case Steve hightlighted, several million records is not massive (the journalists should think of the share registry of their organisation, and then multiply that by the number of companies publicly listed on a stock exchange, multiplied by the number of stock exchanges, etc, etc).
The correction of problems is important. A card that can better identify me as being me (it doesn't help that the govt is pushing the "terrorism" idea as a need for having the card - they're ignoring the huge efficiency savings because they think the public won't buy it and will somehow buy terrorism instead) should only help me get my $30 cash back (woohoo!) when I visit a doctor and better tie it in with my tax so I don't miss claiming something, and the govt cannot claim that I neglected to tell them something - I always thought this was what the US soc security number was about?
My 2c - hope it goes a lot further than what that buys
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From a logical perspective, there is nothing wrong with taking case information that is public record and centralizing it in a digital format. Data is data. The interpretation and storage of that data is where issues may arise.
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I'm a Christion, so I have some sympathy with what drnetwork says. However, to put a logical business-orientated viewpoint (which is the only thing most people will accept), the separation of government and citizens, and the ability of citizens to take risks, is undoubably the foundation of the prosperity on a scale unknown in the history of the world that we see today.
Milton Friedman played a very significant part in shaping public policy to make this possible. I think that history will credit his policies as being a major cause of the downfall of communism. The ability to take risks allows individuals to contribute to economic growth. One man and a dog makes very little change, but a million people in one country employing someone else does make a difference. And 1 or 2 of those million will end up like Bill gates, Richard Branson, etc.
Anything that makes people less keen to take risks will have a negative economic impact. If people start to believe that poking their head above the parapet will get logged on a government computer, they will start to keep their heads down and take less risks. ID cards may sound good for law enforcement, but could be bad for the taxpayers that pay for it.
Original author: https://github.com/SQL-FineBuild/Common/wiki/ 1-click install and best practice configuration of SQL Server 2019, 2017 2016, 2014, 2012, 2008 R2, 2008 and 2005.
When I give food to the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor they call me a communist - Archbishop Hélder Câmara
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I think the summary at the end of the article has got it right.
"It's a good idea in theory, but I'm not so sure that I want it implemented in practice. At least not with some appeals, oversight from independent authority, and only as a means to invite further research. It shouldn't be the end source for the police. "
We should never take the results we get at face value. We used our intelligence to create these wonderful tools to store and retrieve information. But we shouldn't use these tools as a way to excuse ourselves from thinking critically.
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We have something similar in the State of Wisconsin which is mostly used to help the District Attroneys make charging decisions. The idea is that criminals move around alot and may have arrest warrants or pending charges in other counties. They are more likely to keep committing crimes if the police and DAs are not aware of the other arrests.
The OneDOJ database is a similar tool which allows law enforcement to prevent the same crime from happening again and again. If the other Mr Jones was wanted for murder, there would already be an arrest warrant and if there was a case of mistaken identity you would have been in for a bad night under the current system. The local police already have access to all the FBI files, it's just that now they have access to them electronically and in real-time. The same goes for all the other federal agencies under the OneDOJ program.
Joshua Perry
http://www.greenarrow.net -
"Welcome to the United States of Amerika, please surrender your unnecessary freedoms to these nice men over here, who are from the government, and are 'here to help you...'"
feh... I subscribe to the Jeffersonian ideal, that people shouldn't fear their government, but rather government should fear its people; unfortunately, the hyper-paranoid ruling dilettantes in the current administration have swung the pendulum so far, I don't know how long it will take to swing back
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