Letters to the Editor
Re: Loose Cannon: The DOD’s Database–Big Brother or Boondoggle? DIRECT Newsline, Dec. 2.
You hit the nail on the head with this one.
We in the credit reporting industry know from bitter experience how difficult this challenge is, even with the more limited (though still significant) data we receive. We are motivated by ethics, laws and lawsuits to do a “perfect” job with record matching, and we have our challenges. And even with years of experience and literally millions of dollars spent to protect data, to provide secure access to consumers and businesses and to make corrections, we have occasional security breaches and errors.
And the government would likely place itself above those pesky laws and lawsuits. I’m REALLY scared — if they ever get it up and running!
Jan Davis
Executive Vice President
Trans Union LLC
Chicago
What interests me is how the government is planning to build its predictive profiles. Does it enter the characteristics of known terrorists and search for look-alikes? How many known terrorists are there? What kind of data do we have about their characteristics? I am not a statistician, but my guess is not enough to make a meaningful model.
Ruth P. Stevens
eMarketing Strategy
New York
