{"id":41,"date":"2006-07-27T19:45:34","date_gmt":"2006-07-28T03:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/?p=41"},"modified":"2006-07-27T19:45:34","modified_gmt":"2006-07-28T03:45:34","slug":"is-data-mining-fools-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaredrobinson.com\/blog\/is-data-mining-fools-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Data Mining Fools Gold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nHere’s a thought provoking article about the problems of large-scale data mining<\/a> by
\ngovernments. It’s written by a person living in the UK.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Data-mining is complicated, and the more data you are mining, the more
\nfalse positives your software will throw up. If you act upon a false
\npositive for a motoring offence, it’s an inconvenience for the motorist,
\nbut for an alleged case of child abuse, it can rip the family apart and
\nruin the child’s life.”\n<\/p>\n

\n“Furthermore, gathering large amounts of data is inherently dangerous.
\nWhatever information governments find interesting will also draw the
\nattention of criminals. Databases can be hard to keep secure, and it’s
\nnot necessarily hackers that we should be worried about, but
\nunauthorised access by employees of the agencies that use these
\ndatabases. Equally, the more data you have, the more difficult it is to
\nmaintain accuracy. In 2000, an audit of the Police National Computer
\nfound that 86% of records contained errors, 85% of those errors were
\nserious, and some were libellous.”\n<\/p>\n

\n“Technology can be a very powerful tool, but what it can’t do is replace
\nreal human beings or traditional investigative work. Designed badly or
\nused poorly, databases are the technological equivalent of fools gold.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a thought provoking article about the problems of large-scale data mining by governments. It’s written by a person living in the UK. “Data-mining is complicated, and the more data you are mining, the more false positives your software will throw up. If you act upon a false positive for a motoring offence, it’s an … <\/p>\n

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