I've been thinking about data breaches and whatnot. It seems to me the 'know your customer' laws, healthcare laws, etc... well, they are all making things worse. The government has basically forced everyone to build these databases of data, and that means there are more chances for data theft. There are also more chances for those companies with the data to do naughty things with the data.
Of course, the government sometimes steps in with some more laws or more exhortations for better security, but I haven't seen this turn out to be all that great. Usually just more regulations, potentially even more places for the data to get stolen from, and the government track record hasn't been too good either. They've had plenty of data breaches as well. Doesn't seem like this is getting any better.
This insistence on the proliferation of the data is the fundamental problem, and it is doubtful your average bureaucrat will come to this understanding, seeing as this is one of the fundamental job descriptions of bureaucrats.
Even back when these records were on paper, bureaucrats had a bad habit of collecting too much data and not being careful enough about limiting access. But at least the potential bad actor had to go find the physical paper.
It seems to me the problem is potentially so large that even bureaucrats should realize the current trajectory isn't a good one. We have to figure out how to do with less. We often find out this or that perpetrator was known to the FBI, and yet, it didn't do us any good that he was known to them.
Maybe if they collected a little less data, they'd have time to go and catch some of these people.
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