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What we do with computers has always depended on the cost of storage.
Well, the cost of storage is becoming trivial so that we can all hold
almost any data we'd like to on the computer. Does this mean that there's a
kind of electronic Big Brother waiting out there in the future? Well yes I'm afraid
there probably is.
For the technology is now beginning to place awful temptations in front of
administrators. Do it fast, do it easily,
do it cheap. What we need is law,
custom, and procedure. We need to be able to control what is held on computers
who has access to it, and how they could use it. And we need to be able to correct the record.
What worries me is not that Big Brother will get it right
but that he'll get it wrong. The trouble is that people tend to believe what computers
tell them.
Well they shouldn't. There's a more than twenty year old rule in this game
and the sooner everybody memorizes it the better. It's:
Garbage in, garbage out.