Source
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Content
``` Information Technology & People
Special Issue on Identification Technologies and Their Implications for People
Volume 7 Number 4, 1994
Edited by
Roger Clarke
Contents
Roger Clarke Australian National University "Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues"
Simon Davies University of Essex "Touching Big Brother: How Biometric Technology Will Fuse Flesh and Machine"
Marcus Wigan University of Sydney "The Influence of Public Acceptance on the Realisability of the Potential Benefits of Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems"
Philip E. Agre University of California, San Diego and Christine A. Harbs University of San Diego "Social Choice About Privacy: Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems in the United States"
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Preface to the Special Issue
During 1993-94, the General Editor, Eleanor Wynn, handled a paper of mine on the topic of data matching (see Volume 7, Issue 2). During discussions about that paper, Eleanor raised with me the possibility of a Special Issue on the general theme of 'data surveillance'. I have undertaken research and public advocacy in that area for many years, and developed a wide range of international contacts. Although the annual Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference is a key meeting-place for people interested in such topics, there are few academic forums. I was therefore greatly attracted to the idea.
The responses to the Call For Papers has enabled the construction of an even more focussed Issue than I had expected. Rather than skimming across a range of topics, this Issue addresses the specifics of identification technologies, and the impacts which they are having, and will have, on humans and their relationships with organisations and the State. The papers comprise an overview of the topic, an expression of concern about 'biometric' identification (based on people's physical features and behaviour), and two papers which focus on Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS).
1. 'Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues', by Roger Clarke
Remarkably, there is a quite limited literature examining the manner in which organisations associate data with their customers, suppliers and employees. For a decade, I have been developing a survey paper which would fill that gap, and this Issue provided a stimulus for me to complete it. After reviewing the nature of identity and identification, the paper categorises and examines name-based, code-based, knowledge-based, token-based and biometric techniques. The management challenges are described which confront organisations needing to devise identifications schemes to support their operations. In a way which is echoed by each of the subsequent authors, the paper argues that much more serious consideration needs to be given to conducting transactions between organisations and individuals anonymously (i.e. without identifying the individual) or on a pdeudonymous basis (i.e. using a specific-purpose identity which cannot be related with other roles that the person plays).
The latter parts of the paper discuss the question of multi-purpose and general-purpose identification, including inhabitant registration schemes and their associated national databases. It is suggested that these entail serious risks to the fabric of our societies.
2. 'Touching Big Brother: How Biometric Technology Will Fuse Flesh and Machine', by Simon Davies
Simon Davies' paper directly confronts the likelihood that emergent biometric technologies, such as fingerprints, retinal scanning, hand geometry and DNA-profiling, will have very significant impacts on fundamental freedoms and civil liberties. This will be so, even if their applications remain partitioned off, with, say, each employer, consumer services provider and government agency developing their own, largely independent systems. The problems will be particularly acute should biometrics be used as a basis for a ubiquitous, multi-purpose scheme.
3. 'The Influence of Public Acceptance on the Realisability of the Potential Benefits of Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems', by Marcus Wigan
The application of computing and communications to road management systems is set to become far more sophisticated. Marcus Wigan's paper provides an introduction to the various aspects of the systems which are being proposed, and in some cases developed and piloted. A great many of the projects involve identification of vehicles, and directly or indirectly of their occupants. Public concerns are identified, and the scope evaluated for public opposition to IVHS projects to undermine their potential benefits. A set of principles is proposed to counter this likelihood. Of especial importance is the urgent need for credible social impact assessments, including effective and two-way communication and consultation processes between proponents and the public.
4. 'Social Choice About Privacy: Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems in the United States', by Phil Agre and Christine Harbs
IVHS activities to date have embodied a highly technology-driven philosophy. This paper argues that IVHS will impose 'grammars of action' on the public, and entrench standards which will dictate both technology and human behaviour. Public-interest aspects such as privacy, data usage constraints and self-determination must be recognised and addressed now, by the design professions, standards-setting bodies, marketing organizations, the legal system, and regulatory agencies. United States privacy law is examined, and its apparent application to emergent IVHS applications inferred. The paper underlines the necessity of privacy issues being considered not as a mere implementation-phase factor, but as a user requirement to guide IVHS proponents in technology development - early public participation is essential.
The papers in this Special Issue provide important contributions to a better understanding of the impact which identification technologies are having on people. But they also identify ways in which the acceptability to people of identification and other aspects of information technology are likely to represent limiting factors on their application. Proactive measures are essential if satisfactory balances are to be achieved.
Roger Clarke Australian National University 21 November 1994
Abstracts for the special issue
Human Identification in Information Systems: Management Challenges and Public Policy Issues
Roger Clarke Department of Commerce Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 roger.clarke@anu.edu.au
Many information systems involve data about people. In order to reliably associate data with particular individuals, it is necessary that an effective and efficient identification scheme be established and maintained. There is remarkably little in the information technology literature concerning human identification. This paper seeks to overcome that deficiency, by undertaking a survey of human identity and human identification. The techniques discussed include names, codes, knowledge-based and token-based id, and biometrics.
The key challenge to management is identified as being to devise a scheme which is practicable and economic, and of sufficiently high integrity to address the risks the organisation confronts in its dealings with people. It is proposed that much greater use be made of schemes which are designed to afford people anonymity, or enable them to use multiple identities or pseudonyms, while at the same time protecting the organisation's own interests.
Multi-purpose and inhabitant registration schemes are described, and the recurrence of proposals to implement and extent them is noted. Public policy issues are identified. Of especial concern is the threat to personal privacy that the general-purpose use of an inhabitant registrant scheme represents. It is speculated that, where such schemes are pursued energetically, the reaction may be strong enough to threaten the social fabric.
Touching Big Brother: How Biometric Technology Will Fuse Flesh and Machine
Simon G. Davies Department of Law University Of Essex United Kingdom simon@privint.demon.co.uk
The evolution of information technology is likely to result in intimate interdependence between humans and technology. This fusion has been characterised in popular science fiction as chip implantation. It is, however, more likely to take the form of biometric identification using such technologies as fingerprints, hand geometry and retina scanning.
Some applications of biometric identification technology are now cost-effective, reliable, and highly accurate. As a result, biometric systems are being developed in many countries for such purposes as social security entitlement, payments, immigration control and election management. Whether or not biometry delivers on its promise of high-quality identification, it will imperil individual autonomy. Widespread application of the technologies would conflict with contemporary values, and result in a class of outcasts.
The Influence of Public Acceptance on the Realisability of the Potential Benefits of Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems
Marcus R. Wigan Institute of Transport Studies Graduate School of Business - C37 The University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia marcusw@gsb.su.oz.au
Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS) combine computing, sensors and telecommunications to deliver a more effective road/vehicle system for freight and passenger vehicles. Many of these technologies involve surveillance of the location and behaviour of identified vehicles and/or people, and the collation of such data for further use. These and other aspects of IVHS technologies raise concerns amongst the community, and have delayed adoption of some systems.
IVHS systems are outlined, and strategies for their introduction considered. The ownership and use of data collected in the course of IVHS operations is shown to present opportunities relating to revenue-collection and law-enforcement, on the one hand, and public acceptability problems, on the other. There are growing links with large-scale data transmission facilities such as the U.S. National Information Initiative (NII) and the equivalent massive interactive data networks developing elsewhere. Major errors in the implementation of early elements of IVHS may make it extremely difficult to deploy further elements. It is argued that adoption of a number of principles could safeguard the potential benefits at an acceptable social cost.
Social Choice About Privacy: Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems in the United States
Philip E. Agre Department of Communication University of California, San Diego La Jolla, California 92093-0503 USA pagre@ucsd.edu
Christine A. Harbs Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Center for Public Interest Law University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, California 92110-2492 USA charbs@teetot.acusd.edu
Broad coalitions of companies, governments, and research institutions in several countries are currently designing massive electronic infrastructures for their roadways. Known collectively as Intelligent Vehicle-Highway Systems (IVHS), these technologies are intended to ease toll collection and commercial vehicle regulation, provide drivers with route and traffic information, improve safety, and ultimately support fully automated vehicles. Although many aspects of IVHS are uncertain, some proposed designs require the system to collect vast amounts of data on individuals' travel patterns, thus raising the potential for severe invasions of privacy. To make social choices about IVHS, it is necessary to reason about potentials for authoritarian uses of an IVHS infrastructure in the hypothetical future. Yet such reasoning is difficult, often veering toward utopian or dystopian extremes. To help anchor the privacy debate, this article places IVHS privacy concerns in an institutional context, offering conceptual frameworks to discuss the potential interactions between IVHS technologies and the computer design profession, standards-setting bodies, marketing organizations, the legal system, and government administrative agencies. ```