"Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance" report launched
Brian Randell
Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk
Tue Mar 27 06:00:13 PDT 2007
Dave:
The (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering has just issued a report on
"Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance" that will I trust be of
considerable interest to IP.
>From their press release at:
http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/releases/shownews.htm?NewsID=378
>People think there has to be a choice between privacy and security;
>that increased security means more collection and processing of
>personal private information. However, in a challenging report to
>be published on Monday 26 March 2007, The Royal Academy of
>Engineering says that, with the right engineering solutions, we can
>have both increased privacy and more security. Engineers have a key
>role in achieving the right balance.
>
>One of the issues that Dilemmas of Privacy and Surveillance -
>challenges of technological change looks at is how we can buy
>ordinary goods and services without having to prove who we are. For
>many electronic transactions, a name or identity is not needed;
>just assurance that we are old enough or that we have the money to
>pay. In short, authorisation, not identification should be all that
>is required. Services for travel and shopping can be designed to
>maintain privacy by allowing people to buy goods and use public
>transport anonymously. "It should be possible to sign up for a
>loyalty card without having to register it to a particular
>individual - consumers should be able to decide what information is
>collected about them," says Professor Nigel Gilbert, Chairman of
>the Academy working group that produced the report. "We have
>supermarkets collecting data on our shopping habits and also
>offering life insurance services. What will they be able to do in
>20 years' time, knowing how many donuts we have bought?"
>
>Another issue is that, in the future, there will be more databases
>holding sensitive personal information. As government moves to
>providing more electronic services and constructs the National
>Identity Register, databases will be created that hold information
>crucial for accessing essential services such as health care and
>social security. But complex databases and IT networks can suffer
>from mechanical failure or software bugs. Human error can lead to
>personal data being lost or stolen. If the system breaks down, as a
>result of accident or sabotage, millions could be inconvenienced or
>even have their lives put in danger.
The full report is at:
http://www.raeng.org.uk/policy/reports/pdf/
dilemmas_of_privacy_and_surveillance_report.pdf
Cheers
Brian
--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/
-------------------------------------------
Archives: http://v2.listbox.com/member/archive/247/@now
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
More information about the Testlist
mailing list