Information collected by the government

Information collected by the government

• Information collected by the government

• tax information, epidemiological data, census surveys,

• educational records, home mortgage data

• Information collected by private companies

• Anonymized and released*

• • Research subjects can be reidentified in anonymized databases “with astonishing ease.”

• AOL

• Re-identification of Gov. Weld

• Netflix re-identification

• • Every privacy law must be rewritten to eliminate dependence on anonymization and to restrict access to all data (even deidentified data) without consent

The Data Commons has been used to:

• The Data Commons has been used to:

• Detect housing and employment discrimination

• Debunk the myth of the “welfare queen”

• Inform the healthcare and

• mortgage lending policy debates

• Correct longstanding

• misconceptions about crime

• and law enforcement

• Lots more…

• Jane Yakowitz, Tragedy of the Data Commons

3,101 reported data breaches in the U.S.

• 3,101 reported data breaches in the U.S.

• (about half a billion records)

• 700 reported breaches of health records

Sift through Garbage

• Sift through Garbage

• Make Inferences from Facebook Profiles

• Swab a Coffee Cup

• Fewer Opportunities for Replication

• Fewer Voluntary Research Databases

• Fewer Involuntary Public Databases

• Increased Regulatory Precautions

From Richard Platt’s FDA testimony in 2007

• From Richard Platt’s FDA testimony in 2007

• Vioxx approved May, 1999

• Removed from market September, 2004 (64 months)