While the foibles of technology users are good for a laugh when a doctor’s fat-fingered keystroke results in telling a 71-year-old man that he’s pregnant, the problem becomes considerably more disturbing when Maryland State Police label antiwar and anti-death penalty protesters “terrorists” just because they didn’t see a better selection in the drop-down box.
Note that the police fully admit that they have zero evidence that the protesters in question were actually engaged in any acts of violent crime. But they were labeled “terrorists” in cross-jurisdictional law enforcement databases because the developers of the software didn’t see fit to add any better options, and because the people responsible for the data entry didn’t see fit to choose a less loaded option.
And this is exactly the kind of erroneous, boneheaded move that could come back to bite innocent people in the butts later- these databases are the data stores mined by federal law enforcement and security personnel. So if this had happened after the launch of the TSA’s Secure Flight program, these people could have found themselves unable to board an airplane because they like to walk around holding signs in the air.
So much for the “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about” argument. We cannot count on government databases to keep us safe while respecting the rights of innocent citizens if we cannot count on the accuracy of the data being reported.
I’m going to go adjust my tin foil hat now.