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Anonymous doppelganger database

Figure out what is going on!
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Immense amounts of data are collected about us and reduced to numbers. There is plenty of discussion about evil insurance companies who use records to avoid insuring people, marketers who know your buying habits, etc.

The real potential of all this data has not been realized. If there were one massive clearing house for all this data, it could be crossreferenced, correlated and studied, we could greatly increase our understanding of health, economics and behavior. With the massive computing power available, iterative studies to look for patterns become possible.

People fear such a database because they value privacy. The solution: virtual, anonymous doppelgangers. When an item about me becomes known, say a purchase I make, a traffic stop, or a lab test on my blood, the various computers which deal with this data would send a copy to the doppelganger database under my name. The DD stres this data under my coded doppelganger. All of my data would be available for correlative study as my doppelganger.

The code would vary from day to day according to a variable key word. Computer coding is difficult, but not impossible to break - however the DD only need be coded to the point where it would be easier for someone desperate to know about me to break into my house than to break the code.

General truths about the population could be determined - correlations between profession and income, buying habits, place of residence, and epidemiology. A computer could be tasked to continually roam thru, looking for correlations which would then be followed up by research teams. All this without leaning specific information about any individual.

Some databases similar to this are available for very specific things - like the SEER database. However much information is left out, and it only covers a limited set of diagnoses. This idea is original in that any and all data would be included.

bungston, Dec 10 2003

SEER Cancer database. http://www.seer.cancer.gov/
[bungston, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

Reductionism vs "Holism" http://www.aber.ac..../tecdet/tdet03.html
I suspect that people against this idea are advocates of "holism". [bungston, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004]

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       I don't get it.
spacecadet, Dec 10 2003
  

       See explanation to the left.
bungston, Dec 10 2003
  

       The database would only be valuable if information is grouped so there is a chance to find correlation. That same feature will reveal who you are, with or without doppel.
kbecker, Dec 10 2003
  

       [Mr Burns]: I'm not sure the particular Man to which your link refers would know what a Doppelganger is or how to pronounce it.
kevindimie, Dec 11 2003
  

       With enough data, deanonymization becomes very easy.
notexactly, Mar 02 2015
  


 

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