Information Technology & People

Special Issue on 
  Identification Technologies and Their Implications for People

Volume 7 Number 4, 1994

Edited by

  Roger Clarke <roger.clarke@anu.edu.au>
  Australian National University


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"


For more information about Information Technology & People, contact the
publisher:

  MCB University Press Ltd
  60/62 Toller Lane
  Bradford
  West Yorkshire
  England BD8 9BY
  +44 274 499821
  fax 274 547143




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.