The treatment of information about infrastructure use – in particular, who owns and accesses what information – is an issue that needs further exploration and resolution … A central issue with regard to protecting privacy is the balancing of legitimate business opportunities against individual rights, which need to be more clearly defined in this context.
Predictor: National Research Council
Prediction, in context:In 1994, the NRENaissance Committee, appointed by the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council, produced a special report titled “Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond.” Among the committee members were Internet pioneers Leonard Kleinrock, David Clark, David Farber, Lawrence Landweber and Robert Kahn. The committee’s goal was to “study issues raised by the shift to a larger, more truly national networking capability.” Among its statements about the blossoming of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is this: ”Electronic networking makes possible more frequent and more extensive collection of user behavior data as an automatic by-product of use, and it facilitates the amassing of data from multiple sources accessible over networks. As a result, privacy implications of such data gathering and analysis are attracting broader attention. The treatment of information about infrastructure use – in particular, who owns and accesses what information – is an issue that needs further exploration and resolution, as has been recognized through the organization of the administration’s IITF [Information Infrastructure Task Force]. A central issue with regard to protecting privacy is the balancing of legitimate business opportunities against individual rights, which need to be more clearly defined in this context.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Realizing the Information Future: The Internet and Beyond
Title, headline, chapter name: Flow of Information
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://stills.nap.edu/html/rtif/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney