If the trend toward identifier-based smart cards continues, personal privacy will be increasingly eroded. But in this conflict between organizational security and individual liberty, neither side emerges as a clear winner. Each round of improved identification techniques, sophisticated data analysis or extended linking can be frustrated by widespread noncompliance or even legislated limits, which in turn may engender attempts at further control.
Predictor: Chaum, David
Prediction, in context:In a 1992 article for Scientific American, e-cash entrepreneur David Chaum writes: ”If the trend toward identifier-based smart cards continues, personal privacy will be increasingly eroded. But in this conflict between organizational security and individual liberty, neither side emerges as a clear winner. Each round of improved identification techniques, sophisticated data analysis or extended linking can be frustrated by widespread noncompliance or even legislated limits, which in turn may engender attempts at further control.”
Biography:David Chaum was the founder of DigiCash in the early 1990s. He was the inventor of cryptographic protocols that allowed him to create a company whose mission was to change the world through the introduction of anonymous digital money technology. (Technology Developer/Administrator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1992
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Scientific American
Title, headline, chapter name: Achieving Electronic Privacy
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/mepeirce/Project/Chaum/sciam.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Canizaro, Lauren