Description
By now, it’s fair to say that most of us are aware that companies sell our data. What happens when our data gets mixed up with other peoples data? Back in 1999, such was the case when Linda L. Jones got mixed up with Linda A. Jones in one of California’s state databases.
Two women with similar names, both born in Los Angeles on the same day, had their data accidentally combined in the California Department of Motor Vehicles database. As a result, the wrong woman was targeted for child support of an abandoned child. Be sure to read the transcript, attached.
Government and private agencies often purchase or obtain data from other sources. In some cases, government agencies are prevented from collecting certain types of data, but are free to purchase the data from other groups. Problems arise from the sharing of data in this manner. Here are some of the problems that may occur:
Incorrect data may be transferred from one database to another. Often, even if the original data is corrected, the data that has been sold or shared is not corrected. The errors may then be propagated to other databases with no way to really track the problem (this is what happened in Keeping up with the Jones).
Sometimes the merging of the data can create the errors. For example, if one database enters the code of 1 for yes and 2 for no, and another database enters the value of 0 for no and 1 for yes, the data can become corrupted when combined. Let’s say the question was “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” If a programmer selected anyone who has a yes (value 1), then everything is OK. But what if they are selecting everyone who said no? The problem is that no now has two possible values, 0 or 2. If the programmer is not aware of the two possible no responses they may not select everyone who said no.
The selling of data is big business worldwide. What are the disadvantages of sharing data? What are the advantages? What laws protect our data? Do you feel the laws are sufficient? What changes would you recommend? Consider our previous discussion on privacy and the amount of data collection that occurs, sometimes without our knowledge.