Data, Data Banks and Security

The article discusses different examples of data-driven policing, its legal provisions and effects on a society’s understanding of public security. It distinguishes between (a) the collection of classical data such as fingerprints or DNA, which serve to identify suspects and to collect evidence, (b) the processes and the impetus of big data, and (c) the networking of files from different security authorities. Discussing systematic forecasting tools, the article works out a significant difference between the prediction of incidents such as home burglary in the case of predictive policing, and the identification of individuals deemed to be at risk of involvement in various forms of crime in the case of risk control programs. Data and personality protection are interrelated issues.