Privacy Rights, page 1

Protecting the privacy of people while still getting the necessary information. Sound too good to be true? Well it may not be. According to this AP article this type of system already is up and running in some government agencies. The best of both worlds, security can run its check and gather needed information while the privacy of others on the list is protected. This technology would seem to provide a win/win situation that could only help the NSA's and governments popularity. It would, however, still be difficult to prove without some doubt that the governmant was employing this program properly to insure privacy. Private verification might present a security risk.

wired.com
Largely by employing the head-spinning principles of cryptography, the researchers say they can ensure that law enforcement, intelligence agencies and private companies can sift through huge databases without seeing names and identifying details in the records.

For example, manifests of airplane passengers could be compared with terrorist watch lists - without airline staff or government agents seeing the actual names on the other side's list. Only if a match were made would a computer alert each side to uncloak the record and probe further.

"If it's possible to anonymize data and produce ... the same results as clear text, why not?" John Bliss, a privacy lawyer in IBM Corp.'s "entity analytics" unit, told a recent workshop on the subject at Harvard University.

The concept of encrypting or hiding identifying details in sensitive databases is not new. Exploration has gone on for years, and researchers say some government agencies already deploy such technologies - though protecting classified information rather than individual privacy is a main goal

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

With some work this might be a workable system. The encrypted data could be used to run security checks without including names, numbers or sensitive personal data. This could clearly help to alleviate some of the trepidation the public feels about personal information in government hands. So, it appears, Big Brother would still be watching and listening but would not know what he was seeing or hearing unless it was the target information. Could it be a win/win?

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
NEWS: Cheney Defends Domestic Spying
NSA is keeping logs of phones calls in the US
Phone Tapping? That's NOTHING. Here's the real story...

[edit on 19-6-2006 by polanksi]

[edit on 21-6-2006 by UM_Gazz]