"We need to question the assumption that the imperative
to share personal data can only be thought of in terms of catering
to the needs of society rather than safeguarding the privacy or
confidentiality of the individual," said a delegate at theBCS
Ethics Forum Thought Leadership
debate.
Polarising public opinion is to miss the importance to society
itself of securing the personal liberties of the individuals who
comprise it, speakers said. Therefore, it is important to develop a
theory of privacy that acknowledges privacy's importance to society
as a whole as well as to the individual.
A greater understanding of the concepts of privacy,
confidentiality and anonymity is required. Privacy is an complex
concept, with different meanings, which can change according to
contexts. Information sharing has a lot to do with context of use
and relationships, and crosses private and public boundaries, which
are difficult to pin down.
There has always been a need for information sharing within and
across enterprises. The aim of the information system, then, should
be to provide the right information, to the right person, at the
right time. For this to happen, developers should focus on the
whole system rather than just the technology.
An infallible system does not exist, and probably never will,
delegates said. There are always going to be risks, which are
continually changing and evolving. As a result of this, it is not
possible to build in permanent safeguards. Planned and ongoing risk
assessments are essential if there is to be any kind of data
security.
The medium used for storing data is not necessarily what
matters, but rather how it is handled. The information might be on
paper or digital form, but, almost without exception, the errors
occur because of the human factor. Hence, data security has to
focus on natural human frailty. Data protection legislation does
not go far enough to address this issue - for example, there is no
requirement for a privacy log.
People are ultimately responsible for the actions they take, but
IT makes it easier to avoid responsibility. Technology should
support people policies and in a democracy it is us that should
determine social policy.
Ultimately, the value in data sharing has to reach a point where
the benefits outweigh the costs. Data sharing needs to be
intelligent - it is not just black and white.
Speakers at the event included Charles Raab, from the University
of Edinburgh Keith Gordon, author of Principles of Data Management:
Facilitating Information Sharing and Chris Hanvey, UK director of
operations at Barnardo's.