Computer Matching Technology

The issue of security or privacy is a concern as the revelations of computer technologies to pursue suspected criminals is widely used in the U.S. criminal justice system. Criminal justice actors, including police, attorneys, judges, and correctional professionals, employ technological tools such as electronic surveillance, facial recognition, thermal imaging, and data analytics and mining technologies to access information about suspected criminals and terrorists. The computer technologies used to access personal data have raised a number of ethical issues.

The National Security Agency (NSA) has come under scrutiny for violating the privacy of U.S. citizens by using computer technology to access the telephone and personal data stored in the digital databases by telecommunication companies. Using computer data for matching suspects to a crime or law violation is not a 21st century phenomenon, however. In fact, there are historical accounts of computer matching during the draft era, as vehicle registration data of 18- to 21-year-olds were matched to military registration lists for possible “dodgers;” and the 1984 Deficit Reduction Act that required federal agency elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse in delivery of public services resulted in computer matching of welfare benefit recipients to medical records of deceased persons. What is of concern is the surprising amount of personal data and information available and accessible by such government programs as the NSA's PRISM, which partnered with Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Apple, and Dropbox, for the possible retrieval of private electronic data—pictures, e-mails, and file transfer protocol (FTP) information. Agencies using matching technologies to achieve the goals of criminal apprehension, conviction, and corrections in a cost-efficient and effective manner were accused of giving too little attention to potential violations of privacy rights and civil liberties. Computer matching technology is in wide use by police, the courts, and corrections professionals, which are mandated to manage and operate databases of digital information considered to be private and secured by trustworthy and ethical law enforcement personnel.