Computer profiling
I've just found a post on Light Blue Touchpaper about the trouble a research student in Cambridge had with HSBC.
He had what the bank termed a 'suspicious transaction', which was simply his student grant coming in from a foreign account (quite natural as he's a foreign student), so they terminated his account. Of course this had been okay for the previous 2 years, and he'd had other small transfers from foreign climes (from his parents and a savings account).
He, being a security researcher and naturally inclined to find out what's going on, contacted HSBC and sorted it out, but not everyone would do that. This could have impacted many students.
This sort of thing will unfortunately become more and more frequent as we rely on computer profiling much more.
It would surely become commonplace in the event of the National Identity Register being established, it is very difficult to believe that there will not be profiling based upon the data held: Deviate from your usual routine in some way deemed suspicious and you could have the police knocking on your door... (which, will of course be recorded in a linked database, if not in the NIR).
This is also very troubling from a crime fighting and terrorism prevention point of view. Criminals will learn to work outside the NIR, their actions will not be recorded, but the temptation will be to rely on computer profiling, thus missing out on the vast majority of criminals (and clever terrorist networks will offer a few sacrificial lambs to get caught through computer profiling to increase confidence in it).
There is nothing which can replace 'old fashioned' human intelligence.
He had what the bank termed a 'suspicious transaction', which was simply his student grant coming in from a foreign account (quite natural as he's a foreign student), so they terminated his account. Of course this had been okay for the previous 2 years, and he'd had other small transfers from foreign climes (from his parents and a savings account).
He, being a security researcher and naturally inclined to find out what's going on, contacted HSBC and sorted it out, but not everyone would do that. This could have impacted many students.
This sort of thing will unfortunately become more and more frequent as we rely on computer profiling much more.
It would surely become commonplace in the event of the National Identity Register being established, it is very difficult to believe that there will not be profiling based upon the data held: Deviate from your usual routine in some way deemed suspicious and you could have the police knocking on your door... (which, will of course be recorded in a linked database, if not in the NIR).
This is also very troubling from a crime fighting and terrorism prevention point of view. Criminals will learn to work outside the NIR, their actions will not be recorded, but the temptation will be to rely on computer profiling, thus missing out on the vast majority of criminals (and clever terrorist networks will offer a few sacrificial lambs to get caught through computer profiling to increase confidence in it).
There is nothing which can replace 'old fashioned' human intelligence.
Labels: computer+profiling, id+cards, security
