Week Eleven Notes

Announcements

• We are doing 'self-service' roll call today. Please mark the appropriate box with an 'X'. Please tell me if your name is missing from the sheet.
• Monday: Hand back graded papers
• Monday: Go over quiz #2 answers
• Next Monday: Second Magazine Article Review is due
• We are reading chapter seven this week.

Chapter Seven -- Database Applications and Privacy Implications

• Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Microsoft History.
• Databases help us store, organize, retrieve, communicate, and manage information.
• Databases (and database software) facilitate consumer services but also intrude on people's privacy.
• A database is basically just a collection of information.
• Unlike directories in book form like telephone books, databases can be searched in a variety of ways. It's easy to look up a person by name in a telephone directory but virtually impossible to use an ordinary phone book to find a person's address given his or her telephone number. Typically if you know any item stored in a database record you can find the rest of the information relatively quickly and easily.
• Databases typically are structured into tables, records, and fields.
• People can put information into databases in various ways. It can be typed in using a keyboard. Large amounts of data can be imported all at onse from other databases. Software can gather data and place it into databases without human intervention.
• Database software responds to various query commands. When executed, these commands search the database for information in various ways. (e.g. "Find all CS Majors with GPA's 2.7 or greater.") Basically you query a database to find all records that match some pattern that you specify.
• A common database operation is to sort records according to a specified field value.
• It is also common to use a database program to print a report, which is basiclly an ordered list of selected fields from selected records.
• Most modern database programs allow the user to make queries using Standard Query Language (SQL) -- sometimes pronounced "sequel."
• Personal Information Managers (PIM's): address/phone, appointments, to-do lists, miscellaneous notes. Such information can be downloaded and uploaded easily, and shared among members of groups.
• A file manager is a program that works with one file at a time.
• True database management systems (DBMS) work with large collections of files simultaneously.
• A relational database program allows tables to be related to each other so that changes in one table are reflected in other tables automatically.
• Database software presents different views of the underlying data to different users, depending on their needs.
• Much of the use of databases today follows the client/server paradigm.
• Some databases are distributed - parts located on many different servers scattered across a network.
• Data Mining: sophisticated techniques to find patterns in data.
• "XML can serve as a query language and Web page construction tool"
• Object-oriented databases are a somewhat recent innovation. There are different classes of data. Each class supports operations on the data - operations which are appropriate to the members of the class.
• Multimedia Databases provide ways to index media files, for example: art, photographs, maps, video and sound.
• The idea of a Natural Language Database is software that understands queries you make in your ordinary human language. Researchers have worked on such systems for many years with some modicum of success.
• Databases can and do store a great deal of personal information regarding most citizens of modern societies. Sometimes the data is exploited in ways that can violate people's expectations of privacy and security. Errors in databases can harm people's credit ratings resulting in financial problems - even bankruptcy. Millions of people are victims of identity theft every year - consequences range from damaged credit to false imprisonment.
• It is of concern that it is possible to create a computerized dossier of a private citizen - a collection of a large amounts of detailed information about the person, pieced together by combining information from many databases. People should know about the things that they can do to help protect their privacy.
• On the other hand, the extensive availabilty of data today facilitates international trade and criminal investigations.
• Interest in database privacy llegislation in the USA is not as great as in Europe.
• Important ethical principles relating to databases include:
  • No secret government databases
  • Individuals must be able to access and correct data concerning them
  • agencies maintaining the data must be accountable for maintaining reliability and security of the information.
  • Judicial oversight & requirement of subpoena for collection
  • Encryption of data for storage and transmission
• US Legislation affecting privacy of information:
  • Privacy Act of 1974
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act
  • Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
  • Video Privacy Protection Act
  • Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
  • USA Patriot Act