tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/digital-records-9695/articlesDigital records – The Conversation2023-11-22T13:17:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2148192023-11-22T13:17:53Z2023-11-22T13:17:53ZDigitized records from wildlife centers show the most common ways that humans harm wild animals<p>At hundreds of wildlife rehabilitation centers across the U.S., people can learn about wild animals and birds at close range. These sites, which may be run by nonprofits or universities, often feature engaging exhibits, including “ambassador” animals that can’t be released – an owl with a damaged wing, for example, or a fox that was found as a kit and became accustomed to being fed by humans. </p>
<p>What’s less visible are the patients – sick and injured wild animals that have been admitted for treatment.</p>
<p>Each year, people bring hundreds of thousands of sick and injured wild animals to wildlife rehab centers. Someone may find an injured squirrel on the side of the road or notice a robin in their backyard that can’t fly, and then call the center to pick up an animal in distress.</p>
<p>We study <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tara-Miller-8">ecology</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XfgB_BUAAAAJ&hl=en">biology</a>, and recently used newly digitized records from wildlife rehabilitation centers to identify the human activities that are most harmful to wildlife. In the largest study of its kind, we reviewed 674,320 records, mostly from 2011 to 2019, from 94 centers to paint a comprehensive picture of threats affecting over 1,000 species across much of the U.S. and Canada. </p>
<p>Our findings, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110295">published in the journal Biological Conservation</a>, point to some strategies for reducing harm to wildlife, especially injuries caused by cars.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SEVqsMsvQws?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota, the largest independent rehab center in the U.S., treats over 1,000 sick and injured animals yearly.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Tracking the toll</h2>
<p>Humans are responsible for the deaths and injuries of billions of animals every year. Bats and birds fly into buildings, power lines and wind turbines. Domestic cats and dogs kill backyard birds and animals. Development, farming and industry alter or destroy wild animals’ habitats and expose wildlife to toxic substances like lead and pesticides. Extreme weather events linked to climate change, such as flooding and wildfires, can be devastating for wildlife.</p>
<p>Most Americans support <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/press-releases/survey-majority-americans-support-candidate-values-protection-endangered-species">protecting threatened and endangered species</a>, and <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/survey-most-americans-believe-human-population-driving-wildlife-extinctions-2020-11-12/">recognize that human activities can harm wildlife</a>. But it is surprisingly difficult to determine which activities are most harmful to wildlife and identify effective solutions. </p>
<p>Information from wildlife rehab centers across the U.S. can help fill in that picture. When an animal is brought into one of these centers, a rehabilitator assesses its condition, documents the cause of injury or illness if it can be determined, and then prepares a treatment plan. </p>
<p>Wildlife rehabbers may be veterinarians, veterinary technicians or other staff or volunteers who are certified by state agencies to treat wildlife. They follow professional codes and standards, and sometimes publish research in peer-reviewed journals.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwNiHd5AkSL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>A growing data pool</h2>
<p>Until recently, most wildlife rehab records existed only in binders and file cabinets. As a result, studies drawing on these records typically used materials from a single location or focused on a particular species, such as bald eagles or foxes. </p>
<p>Recently, though, rehab centers have digitized hundreds of thousands of case records. Shareable digital records can improve wildlife conservation and public health. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.wildlifecenter.org/">Wildlife Center of Virginia</a> has worked with government agencies and other rehab centers to establish the <a href="https://www.wild-one.org/">WILD-ONe database</a> as a tool for assessing trends in wildlife health. This will be an exciting area of research as more records are digitized and shared.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing distribution of wildlife centers that provided data for the study." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560206/original/file-20231117-19-6un51w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Locations in the U.S. and Canada where animals were found (blue dots) before being brought to wildlife rehabilitation centers (red stars) included in Miller et al., 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110295">Miller et al., 2023</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Threats vary by species</h2>
<p>Using this trove of data, we have been exploring patterns of wildlife health across North America. In our study, we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110295">identified key threats affecting wildlife</a> by region and for iconic and endangered species. </p>
<p>Overall, 12% of the animals brought to rehab centers during this period were harmed by vehicle collisions – the single largest cause of injury. For <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/overview#">great horned owls</a>, which are common across the U.S., cars were the most common cause of admission – possibly because the owls commonly <a href="https://www.fws.gov/story/threats-birds-collisions-road-vehicles">forage at the same height as vehicles</a>, and may feed on road kill. </p>
<p>Other threats reflect various animals’ habitats and life patterns. Window collisions were the most common injury for the <a href="https://www.batcon.org/bat/eptesicus-fuscus/">big brown bat</a>, another species found in many habitats across the U.S. Fishing incidents were the main reason for admission of endangered <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/kemps-ridley-turtle">Kemp’s ridley sea turtles</a>, which are found in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coast.</p>
<p>Toxic substances and infectious diseases represented just 3.4% of cases, but were important for some species. <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bald_Eagle/overview">Bald eagles</a>, for example, were the species most commonly brought to centers with lead poisoning. Eagles and other raptors <a href="https://www.wildlifecenter.org/lead-toxicity-raptors">consume lead ammunition inadvertently</a> when they feed on carcasses left in the wild by hunters. </p>
<p>In southern Florida, hurricanes and floods resulted in spikes in the numbers of animals brought to rehab centers, reflecting the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-at-work-sloshing-through-marshes-to-see-how-birds-survive-hurricanes-146067">impact of climate-driven extreme weather events on wildlife health</a>. </p>
<p>About one-third of animals in the cases we reviewed were successfully released back to the wild, though this varied greatly among species. For example, 68% of brown pelicans were released, but only 20% of bald eagles. Unfortunately, some 60% of the animals died from their injuries or illnesses, or had to be humanely euthanized because they were unable to recover.</p>
<h2>Spotlighting solutions</h2>
<p>Our results spotlight steps that can help conserve wildlife in the face of these threats. For example, transportation departments can build more <a href="https://interestingengineering.com/lists/29-of-the-most-heartwarming-wildlife-crossings-around-the-world">road crossings for wildlife</a>, such as bridges and underpasses, to help animals avoid being hit by cars.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large wild cat emerges from an underpass beneath a highway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560059/original/file-20231116-29-cl09dy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A mountain lion uses an underpass to safely traverse Route 97 near Bend, Oregon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Wildlife management agencies can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-018-1132-x">ban or limit use of ammunition and fishing gear that contain lead</a> to reduce lead poisoning. And governments can <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/wildlife-disaster-preparedness">incorporate wildlife into disaster management plans</a> to account for surges in wildlife rescues after extreme weather events.</p>
<p>People can also make changes on their own. They can drive more slowly and pay closer attention to wildlife crossing roads, switch their fishing and hunting gear to nonlead alternatives, and <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/how-can-i-keep-birds-from-hitting-my-windows/">put decals or other visual indicators on windows</a> to reduce bat and bird collisions with the glass.</p>
<p>To learn more about animals in your area and ways to protect them, you can <a href="https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/how-find-wildlife-rehabilitator">visit or call your local wildlife rehab center</a>. You can also donate to these centers, which we believe do great work, and are often underfunded.</p>
<p>The scale of threats facing wild animals can seem overwhelming, but wildlife rehabbers show that helping one injured animal at a time can identify ways to save many more animal lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tara K. Miller received funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard B. Primack does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of wildlife rehabilitation centers across the US and Canada treat sick and injured animals and birds. Digitizing their records is yielding valuable data on human-wildlife encounters.Tara K. Miller, Policy Research Specialist, Repair Lab, University of VirginiaRichard B. Primack, Professor of Biology, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714872017-01-30T03:06:52Z2017-01-30T03:06:52ZWho gets to see CCTV footage? The law favours the operators<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154165/original/image-20170125-10188-12prlcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who owns the digital data recorded and uploaded by CCTV operators?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/offshore-processing-centres-nauru-and-papua-new-guinea-contract-management">recent report</a>, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) detailed “significant shortcomings” in the management by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection of contracts for security and welfare services on Manus Island and Nauru.</p>
<p>One shortcoming identified by the ANAO was that video records and reports of incidents provided by the department and their service providers between 2013 and 2016 were not always able to be reconciled.</p>
<p>“There were records of incidents which noted that video existed of an incident, but no corresponding video,” the ANAO audit stated. Also, “there were gaps in the recording of incidents”.</p>
<p>According to the audit, Wilson Security held almost eight terabytes of digital records. But it provided only two terabytes of data to the ANAO. Its explanation was that “the majority of the footage was unrelated to incidents or investigations within the centre”.</p>
<p>It should be a matter of concern that the controller of digital data, when subjected to public scrutiny, can arrogate to itself the power to determine what to release and what to hold on to. But before <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-security-gags-on-media-force-us-to-trust-state-will-do-no-wrong-32103">exploring this potential weakness</a> in accountability, let me take a step back and examine the legal environment in which these issues arise.</p>
<h2>Who owns the digital data recorded and uploaded by CCTV operators?</h2>
<p>Unless there are contractual stipulations to the contrary, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cctv-who-can-watch-whom-under-the-law-63046">all footage belongs</a> to the organisation (public or private) that owns the equipment, along with anyone who by contract is specified to share that ownership.</p>
<p>Most often, a broader distribution of these images and data happens without any difficulty. Organisations (such as local councils) and private individuals who have any footage that will help police track down a suspect are usually only too willing to hand over that evidence. An example would be <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/what-bayley-did-in-jills-final-hours-20130313-2fzvo.html">tracing the movements</a> of assailants and their victims. </p>
<p>But when that footage is embarrassing to its owners, especially when the material becomes subject to private legal proceedings, accessibility tightens up considerably.</p>
<p>For example, in February 2006 rock band Powderfinger’s Ian Haug was ejected from Jupiters Casino and was injured in an ensuing scuffle. He <a href="http://www.news.com.au/news/star-guitarist-sues-bouncers/news-story/db50a36da85e2cfa2ddd2a6939bde4dd">sued the casino</a>, alleging that its security staff had <a href="http://www.sclqld.org.au/caselaw/QCA/2007/199">used excessive force</a> in causing his injuries. </p>
<p>To prepare the case against the casino, Haug’s solicitors sought CCTV footage from Jupiters. It refused, saying that the digital records were private. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/casino-sued-over-powderfinger-guitarists-ejection/2007/06/15/1181414512677.html">Queensland Court of Appeal agreed</a>. Any order that Jupiters hand over these records in such a case, it said, would compromise the casino’s proper functioning.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="https://www.maddocks.com.au/uncategorized/responding-requests-access-cctv-footage/">in 2013</a> the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) granted access to CCTV footage recorded at the Caulfield racecourse to a person considering legal action against the police who had been deployed there. On balance, said the VCAT, such disclosure was not unreasonable so long as it was used solely for the purposes of legal action and was not more widely distributed.</p>
<h2>Public versus private</h2>
<p>What about footage that is filmed in a public facility? Again, the law engages in a balancing act. In <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VCAT/2012/241.html">Horrocks v Department of Justice</a>, the VCAT was asked by a prisoner to order the release of footage that, he alleged, captured an assault on him. The VCAT refused to make the order, citing the unreasonableness of making available, without restriction, a permanent record of the image and identity of the relevant correctional officers.</p>
<p>Government departments do not, however, always get their own way. The <a href="https://www.oaic.gov.au/resources/freedom-of-information/foi-decisions/ic-review-decisions/2014-AICmr55.pdf">determination</a> of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in the case of “BZ” and Department of Immigration and Border Protection illustrates that government-run facilities may be subject to disclosure orders in appropriate circumstances.</p>
<p>In this case, the applicant sought CCTV footage of his treatment at the hands of an employee at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre. The commissioner found that it was not unreasonable for the department to release edited footage of the incident to the applicant to allow him to advance his legal claim for compensation.</p>
<p>So where does this leave the “disappeared” six terabytes of digital data that Wilson Security withheld from the ANAO? The legal issue is somewhat blurred by the fact that the company that the government contracted to run its offshore detention centres, Transfield Services, sub-contracted its <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/fragment/transfield-wins-12bn-contract-manus-nauru-detention-centre-security">security obligations</a> to Wilson Security.</p>
<p>Wilson’s first allegiance, contractually, is to Transfield, not the government. Assuming that contractual maze is negotiable, any party interested in pursuing the missing footage would not only need to establish a legal interest in it, but also jump the next legal hurdle of proving, on balance and without seeing the material, that it was not unreasonable for the department to track it down and then open it up to scrutiny.</p>
<p>Interested parties are unlikely to be supported in any such endeavour by the minister, who would see this as little more than a political “fishing” exercise. </p>
<p>Simply stated: don’t expect to see the footage from the missing six terabytes any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rick Sarre does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a recent report highlighting ‘shortcomings’ in security and welfare services in offshore detention, six terabytes of data was ‘missing’. Don’t expect to see it any time soon.Rick Sarre, Professor of Law, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/488862015-10-09T05:12:35Z2015-10-09T05:12:35ZWho watches the watchers when the watchers use Wickr?<p>The latest controversy over Malcolm Turnbull’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-09/malcolm-turnbull-continues-to-use-non-government-email-service/6839684">use of Wickr</a> should provoke questions about accountability in the age of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/cloud-computing">cloud</a>. </p>
<p>It’s an age where use of private messaging systems by a digital <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/who-are-the-1-percenters/2011/10/06/gIQAn4JDQL_blog.html">1%</a> – an elite that is well connected and powerful – is eroding expectations about oversight by journalists, official monitors and ordinary people. To adapt the words of writer <a href="http://www.davidbrin.com/about.html">David Brin</a>, a privileged “Them” know a lot about us and increasingly “We” know less about them.</p>
<p>Governments have always sought to keep some communications secret, whether by using technologies (everything from special couriers to encrypted fax, email and voice communications) or by relying on face to face meetings and “old boys” networks. </p>
<p>In doing so, they’re like the private sector, but with greater resources than most Australian enterprises. Understandably, Australia’s national government has not published a blueprint of which tools, such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/australia-news-blog/2015/mar/02/wickr-the-secret-messaging-app-of-the-party-unfaithful">Wickr</a>, are being used by parliamentarians, officials, members of special inquiries and others who deal with information that is politically sensitive or official. </p>
<p>People who are aware of how the tools are being used are typically reticent about disclosing specifics, whether because of a sense of responsibility or because of secrecy provisions regarding particular agencies.</p>
<p>One implication is that we need to trust that the government knows what it is doing, i.e. it has been properly <a href="http://www.asd.gov.au/infosec/ism/index.htm">advised</a> by experts in bodies such as the <a href="http://www.asd.gov.au/">Australian Signals Directorate</a> about what’s secure and what isn’t.</p>
<h2>Freedom from information</h2>
<p>Another implication is uncertainty about accountability.</p>
<p>Ministers and public sector agencies are distinguished from the private sector because they are meant to be accountable. That accountability is broader than the <a href="http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information">Freedom of Information</a> and <a href="http://www.naa.gov.au/records-management/strategic-information/standards/records-and-legislation/index.aspx">Archives</a> legislation, which are aimed at ensuring citizen access to government information. </p>
<p>Accountability is enshrined in judgements by Australian Courts recognising that knowing what the government is doing is the foundation of the liberal democratic state. A salient example is the statement by <a href="http://www.hcourt.gov.au/justices/former-justices/former-justices/michael-hudson-mchugh-ac-qc">Justice Michael McHugh</a> in the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UWALawRw/1989/8.pdf">Spycatcher Case</a> (where Turnbull was a barrister) about responsibility.</p>
<p>In principle, use of tools such as Wickr for official communications by ministers, other MPs and officials is directly covered by the <a href="http://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/about-freedom-of-information">FOI Act</a> (access to contemporary communications) and the Archives Act (historic material).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/97886/original/image-20151009-23880-axp6g4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Wickr offers private communication between two parties, unlike SMS.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wickr</span></span>
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<p>Those enactments feature broad exemptions that reflect legitimate concerns regarding personal privacy, commercial confidentiality and national security. Only utopians, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/julian-assange">Julian Assange</a>, who want the state to evaporate would want total transparency.</p>
<h2>Who’s watching?</h2>
<p>In practice the use of external – essentially private – services and devices has a fundamental impact on the FOI and Archives regime. Irrespective of whether you are an archivist, a journalist, a potential litigant or another MP, you are very unlikely to access and preserve a communication if you have no way of determining whether that communication has taken place. </p>
<p>You cannot rely on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (<a href="http://www.oaic.gov.au/">OAIC’s</a>), the complacent agency that has been grossly <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/the-slow-death-of-the-office-of-the-australian-information-commissioner-20150826-gj81dl.html">underfunded</a> and has undergone regulatory capture. </p>
<p>The government remains committed to abolishing that watchdog, irrespective of the OAIC’s lack of vigour and recalcitrance about FOI applications regarding that agency’s own operation. </p>
<p>The Prime Minister has not condemned recurrent statements by Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd that FOI is “<a href="http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/new-low-point-for-foi-as-public-service.html#.Vhc45D_5M0E">pernicious</a>” and has gone too far, a signal from the top that bureaucratic convenience is far more important than accountability.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://naa.gov.au">National Archives</a>, still alive but seriously underfunded, faces the same challenges as its oversees peers in preserving electronic records, i.e. the email, Microsoft Office and other documents that are “born digital”, are readily deleted and are less robust than paper. </p>
<p>If the organisation is struggling with mundane email, it’s not going to cope well with messaging systems based on encryption, and which users claim involve private communication. A diligent scholar can identify the archiving protocols for email within many government agencies. Don’t be optimistic about voice calls, particularly calls by an important “Them” using services that promoted as sidestepping the archivist or FOI applicant.</p>
<h2>Freedom from oversight</h2>
<p>Wickr-style services will grow. In thinking about government use we should recall that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/tpp">Trans-Pacific Partnership</a> Agreement – the details of which are still secret – appears likely to prevent Australia from prohibiting offshoring of data and thus limiting the cloud. </p>
<p>We should also recall that neither the government nor opposition has resiled from warrantless access by a wide range of agencies to whole-of-population telecommunications <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/metadata">metadata</a> that is mandatorily retained by telecommunications companies. </p>
<p>We might be optimistic, and decide that leaks within and around Cabinet will provide us with everything we need to know, irrespective of whether a meeting takes place at the Melbourne Club or someone used Wickr. </p>
<p>However, a realist might wonder whether such tools mean that “free speech” is a privilege of a digital 1%, those rare people who are free not to be observed, and whether ministers should be reminded that FOI does not mean unaccountability through a freedom from oversight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Baer Arnold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The use of private messaging apps that bypass government IT raise troubling issues for oversight and freedom of information.Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/415132015-06-03T20:14:43Z2015-06-03T20:14:43ZDigital Domesday: surveillance threatens us with a new serfdom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83309/original/image-20150529-24258-b0a87e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nothing of what William's subjects had in life escaped the Domesday Book. Today, more covertly, those in power are using mass surveillance to collect all the digital details of our lives. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/electropod/3167236184/in/photolist-5PSUYq-pZ4Upa-5Rp3wt-qVPZpv-qDnGhr-qDnv9p-qTLbjC-3S5xu-jeAFK-5QiSuw-jvTtm8-jvRX9p-jvVF3j-jvWJDY-jvUDhB-jvUvkp-jvUeq8-jvV8h5-jvSWUg-jvUbqk-jvWgSS-jvU4pr-jvUN1Q-jvSBk6-3S5xw-jmW3GA-qTLkQw-jkU86N-qFF8TG-mwszeB-noA28B-6rs5GJ-goGypx-p4z1Ce-i5uWwV-hFjL5G-3S5xs-5QiSvb-3kkfxi-2cSXUi-ajZPX5-hMnov4-hJrBq3-dLFw8C-hMmZur-hMo2Pn-hMmGQz-goFuQi-goFApK-goEYPi">Flickr/Andrew Barclay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/shortcodes/images-videos/articles-democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In 1085, almost two decades had passed since <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zp88wmn">William the Conqueror’s</a> victory at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings">Hastings</a>, but his realm was not secure. The threat of internal insurrection was constant. To consolidate his rule William needed to know who owned what, what taxes he could raise and where the military capacity he could call on, or which could be deployed against him, was located. </p>
<p>To find out, William commissioned a “Great Survey”. Royal officers were dispatched to make a detailed inventory of holdings in villages and towns across England. The results were recorded in the <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/domesday/">Domesday Book</a>, as it came to be known. Like the Last Judgement of God, its findings were final and could not be revised or appealed against. </p>
<p>As the <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657">Anglo-Saxon Chronicles</a> noted at the time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is shameful to tell, though he thought it no shame to do it, not even an ox, nor a cow , nor a swine was there left, that was not set down in his writ.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>William presided over a feudal system. Everyone was subject to his arbitrary and unaccountable power. </p>
<p>The majority laboured as serfs on land owned by lords who demanded the lion’s share of their produce. The lords also had access to land and resources held in common that supported a degree of self–sufficiency.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/enclosure-acts-industrial-revolution/">enclosure movement</a> dismantled this system. That led to a political struggle to compel the new political and economic order of capitalism to recognise and uphold the rights of citizens to elect governments and hold them accountable.</p>
<h2>The rise of saturation surveillance</h2>
<p>By recording every key stroke or screen touch, every email, every posting, every page viewed and every person contacted, and by using this data in the pursuit of security and profit, the present regime of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nine-reasons-you-should-care-about-nsas-prism-surveillance-15075">saturation surveillance</a> is re-inventing the Domesday Book for digital times. The result is a profound contradiction at the heart of formally democratic societies. </p>
<p>While the fine detail of our daily lives becomes ever more available to governments and corporations, many of their activities remain concealed behind walls of “national security” and “commercial confidentiality”.</p>
<p>The revolutionary crowds in Paris in 1789 demanded a social and political order grounded in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libert%C3%A9,_%C3%A9galit%C3%A9,_fraternit%C3%A9">liberty, equality and mutuality</a>. Saturation surveillance undermines all three of these core principles. It returns us to a condition of serfdom, where we look to increasingly unaccountable powers to guarantee our safety, security and labour in the virtual fields owned by online landlords. </p>
<p>In doing so, we grant them control over our personal data and our produce. To understand how we have arrived at this situation, we can usefully begin with shifting perceptions of threat.</p>
<h2>Enemies within, a century ago and now</h2>
<p>The modern state security complexes in the US and UK emerged in the years surrounding the first world war. In 1914, the British Secret Service Bureau – which had been launched in 1909 – was split into two. The Security Service (<a href="https://www.mi5.gov.uk/">MI5</a>) assumed responsibility for domestic intelligence, while the Secret Intelligence Service (<a href="https://www.sis.gov.uk/">MI6</a>) took charge of foreign intelligence. </p>
<p>In a parallel development, in 1908 the US established a domestic intelligence agency, the Bureau of Investigation. This was the precursor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (<a href="http://www.fbi.gov/">FBI</a>). </p>
<p>Against a background of mass migration, domestic surveillance came to focus on “enemies within”, or immigrants who championed “alien” ideas. Anarchist activists were a particular concern, fuelled by the <a href="http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/astronomy-facts/history/propaganda-by-deed-the-greenwich-observatory-bomb-of-1894">bombing of the Royal Observatory</a> in London in 1894 and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_United_States_anarchist_bombings">bombings in seven cities</a> across the US in June 1919. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=684&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83307/original/image-20150529-31313-14tc5e2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=860&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Philadelphia Inquirer cartoon from 1919 is not much different from some cartoons being published today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.fbi.gov/philadelphia/about-us/history/famous-cases/famous-cases-1919-bombings">FBI Philadelphia Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A cartoon in The Philadelphia Inquirer depicted the threat as a heavily bearded man in a turban creeping under the American flag and holding a torch labelled “anarchy”. It was an iconic image, recently resurrected with little or no modification to depict jihadists, the new “enemies within”.</p>
<p>On July 7, 2005, four young British men detonated rucksack bombs in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/05/london_blasts/what_happened/html/">London</a>, three in the underground system and one on a bus. They killed themselves and 52 others, as well as injuring more than 700 people. One was married with a child and employed as a learning mentor in a primary school. Another lived with his parents and worked in a fish and chip shop. </p>
<p>It was precisely this appearance of ordinariness that caused most concern. The enemy within was no longer arriving from overseas. Instead, they were nationals who gave every appearance of being assimilated. </p>
<p>The London bombings confirmed for the intelligence community that identifying potential terrorists was becoming more difficult. The familiar, paramilitary styles of organisation typified by the notorious Irish Republican Army were being replaced by “new”, more fluid forms. Activities are planned independently by small groups or “freelancers” (not formal members of an organisation) inspired by ideological appeals.</p>
<p>Tackling this dispersal was seen to require a shift from selective monitoring to saturation surveillance. This gained impetus with the addition of economic disruption to the list of internal threats.</p>
<p>In 1984, Margaret Thatcher had famously applied the label <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/03/thatcher-labour-miners-enemy-within-brighton-bomb">“enemies within”</a> to British miners striking in protest against plans for wholesale pit closures. A decade later, this stretched definition was given statutory authority when the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_Services_Act_1994">Intelligence Service Act</a> included defence of the UK’s “economic well-being” as integral to “the interests of national security”. This legitimated extended surveillance of groups protesting against leading energy, agri-business and pharmaceutical companies.</p>
<p>In 2012, reporting on the operation of the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228552/9780108511769.pdf">independent reviewer noted</a> the “extreme breadth of the definition of ‘terrorism’ in the UK”. Widening the circle of “persons of interest” placed increasing strains on the apparatus of surveillance.</p>
<h2>From human intelligence to data surveillance</h2>
<p>Standard techniques of “human intelligence” are based on first-hand observation and running agents and informers. These are time-consuming and labour-intensive. Since 1919, when the US government established the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Chamber">Cypher Bureau</a> and the UK government launched the <a href="http://www.gchq.gov.uk/history/Pages/Beginnings.aspx">Government Code and Cypher School</a>, they have been supplemented by monitoring electronic communications and, where encryption is used, code-breaking. </p>
<p>Following Allied success in breaking the Nazi <a href="https://theconversation.com/codebreaking-has-moved-on-since-turings-day-with-dangerous-implications-34448">Enigma codes</a> in the second world war, “signals intelligence” moved rapidly up the list of priorities for effective surveillance. Operations were consolidated in two new institutions: the <a href="https://www.nsa.gov/">National Security Agency</a> (NSA) in the US in 1952, and the <a href="http://www.gchq.gov.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx">Government Communications Headquarters</a> in Britain in 1946.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83589/original/image-20150601-6976-1d60bh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The GCHQ is at the heart of surveillance operations in the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/defenceimages/7985695591/">Flickr/UK Defence Ministry</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The internet greatly extended the options available for monitoring telecommunications traffic. As everyday exchange and interaction moves online, valuable information about users’ talk, habits, interests and social connections, which were previously labour-intensive to compile, has become available on tap.</p>
<h2>Digital landlords and serfs</h2>
<p>The principal initial beneficiaries of this expanding pool of personal data were the companies that came to dominate everyday internet use. These were Amazon (1994) in online retailing, Google and Yahoo (1995) in search and email, and Facebook (2004) in social networking. All adopted saturation surveillance as a business model, assembling detailed user profiles to craft more precisely targeted advertising appeals.</p>
<p>They also reserved the right to convert participants’ postings into intellectual property that they owned and controlled. They established themselves as digital landlords. Users were treated as digital serfs who relinquished all title to the value of their activity and labour in return for residence on one of the new virtual estates.</p>
<p>The rapid expansion of readily available digital data coincided with the growing security consensus that identifying threats required access to any and all information that might provide an early warning. As the files <a href="https://theconversation.com/obamas-concession-on-spying-makes-implicit-case-for-leaks-21918">leaked by Edward Snowden</a> make clear, the NSA was siphoning off huge amounts of user-generated data as it moved across the open internet. This concerted effort was codenamed <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-ways-you-can-avoid-being-caught-in-the-prism-net-15696">PRISM</a> – the Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronisation and Management – a designation celebrating the convergence of security and marketing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83310/original/image-20150529-24247-1vzcydp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The exposure of mass surveillance has triggered protests by citizens alarmed at the growth of state power over their lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenmelkisethian/10501566554/in/photolist-gZZgSj-jpgU1q-pEQRJD-gZZXCG-gZZj2w-h1YHYL-h1YE2h-h1YRWs-h1YFxy-h11hU6-gZZfuF-gZZgrQ-gZZk6d-gZZZNW-gZZVxm-gZZUi7-gZZXsw-h1YBEU-h122Ga-h11Y8B-gZZTwL-gZZXfh-h11P3c-gZZYJm-gZZVsb-h113AC-gZZYZE-gZZP5v-h11Zue-h24gch-h248Qf-h113aY-h25azc-gZZSFC-h11RQM-h11YLa-gZZT1g-gZZS8J-h121Xz-gZZXnn-gZZWhs-h11Xex-h114m5-h122SF-gZZRLb-h11Z9V-gZZXvQ-h11RfP-gZZSNT-gZZLcM">Flickr/Stephen Melkisethian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reporting in 2014, the British Communications Commissioner, charged with ensuring that intercepts are appropriate and proportionate, put aside his qualms about the escalating number of requests. He <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/apr/08/david-cameron-welcomes-all-clear-spy-agencies-surveillance-watchdog-anthony-may">concluded</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the interception agencies do not engage in indiscriminate mass intrusion.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two months later, mobile phone operator Vodafone <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/06/vodafone-reveals-secret-wires-allowing-state-surveillance">revealed</a> that secret wires attached to its networks allowed government agencies direct access to all conversations passing through them. </p>
<p>Just over a week later, the government’s top security official argued that since the sites involved were located outside UK individuals’ uses of Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, they were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10905014/GCHQ-sanctions-spying-on-every-Facebook-Google-and-Twitter-user.html">classified as “external communications”</a>. They therefore fell outside the scope of current legislation.</p>
<h2>Digital citizenship centres on the commons</h2>
<p>The saturation surveillance employed to assemble the new digital Domesday Books undermines the core principles on which citizenship is based. Its collection compromises personal liberties. By erecting categorical distinctions that assign stigma and guilt, its analysis undermines <a href="http://www.claiminghumanrights.org/equality_before_law_definition.html">equality of treatment</a> and corrodes the solidarities on which democracy ultimately rests.</p>
<p>Like the compilers of the original Domesday Book, its architects display no shame in doing this, or in returning citizens to the status of subjects. But the Domesday story also highlights the centrality of the commons in William’s England, and the vitality of a moral economy based on communal control of shared core resources. </p>
<p>Remembering this prompts us to see the battle for full digital citizenship not simply as a struggle to rein in the scope of state surveillance and transfer control over the uses of personal data from corporations to individuals. Instead, it is the latest stage in the struggle against commercial and governmental enclosure and for the commons. </p>
<p>Imagining how a digital commons might be organised and how we might move towards it is arguably the greatest conceptual and political challenge we face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41513/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graham Murdock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Almost 1000 years after their ruler demanded every detail of serfs’ lives, the digital age and mass surveillance are creating a new and undemocratic imbalance between citizens and those with power over them.Graham Murdock, Professor of Culture and Economy , Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/235702014-04-03T05:47:44Z2014-04-03T05:47:44ZA digital NHS is coming, now is not the time to be a luddite<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">xxxx</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sachac/10863624785/sizes/l">Sachac</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/45288/original/8np9vkw9-1396345969.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Easier to do on computer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sachac/10863624785/sizes/l">Sachac</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Many of us live in a world where we can access and edit personal information online and on the move. Whether it is checking bank balances, amending grocery orders, or informing the world of our most recent “epiphany”, we are becoming accustomed to a life lived in close connection with our private data. A small number of patients have also been able to <a href="https://www.myhealth.london.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/u3246/ItsYourRecord.pdf">access their NHS heath records</a> online for a number of years. However, the NHS as a whole has been rather slow on the digital uptake.</p>
<p>The current government has been trying hard to rectify this. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, announced last year that he wanted the NHS to be “<a href="http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/ehi/8315/hunt-wants-paperless-nhs-in-five-years">paperless</a>” within five years and also recently <a href="http://www.gponline.com/News/article/1283771/Hunt-95-patients-will-online-access-GP-records-2015/">renewed a pledge</a> to give patients online access to their health records by April 2015. </p>
<p>The government is also pressing ahead – albeit with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/nhs-has-a-huge-responsibility-to-protect-care-data-and-its-not-off-to-a-good-start-23685">six month “pause”</a> – with plans to collect digital health information from doctors’ records and link these data with digital health information from hospital records in one large <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/records/healthrecords/Pages/care-data.aspx">care.data</a> database. </p>
<p>Eventually, patients will get access to any <a href="http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g1547">identifiable data</a> held about them but the primary purpose of this database is to give commissioners, researchers and, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/28/care-data-is-in-chaos">more controversially</a>, private companies, access to <a href="http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cd-leaflet-01-14.pdf">valuable</a> health data.</p>
<h2>Managing your condition</h2>
<p>The Department for Health’s rather saccharine <a href="http://digitalchallenge.dh.gov.uk">video clip</a> illustrates some of the benefits of giving patients online access to their own health information and the <a href="http://www.rcgp.org.uk/Clinical-and-research/Practice-management-resources/%7E/media/Files/Informatics/Health_Informatics_Enabling_Patient_Access.ashx">Royal College of General Practitioners</a> has issued more formal guidance outlining the key benefits (and risks) associated with this policy. Among other benefits, providing online access should make it easier for patients to identify (and rectify) errors in their health records and should help patients to better understand and manage their medical conditions. It might even encourage healthcare professionals to improve their record keeping practises and enable them to fulfil their legal duty to provide equal access for all, for example by making it easier for patients with visual impairments to read their own health records.</p>
<p>There are also <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/3525/Caredata">many potential benefits</a> associated with schemes designed to share key aspects of patient’s digital health data with commissioners, researchers and, potentially, private companies. Allowing this kind of access should lead to <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/article/3525/Caredata">more effective provision of care</a>, better health service planning, and more efficient responses to epidemics. Even those who are <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/21/nhs-plan-share-medical-data-save-lives">critical of the handling</a> of the care.data project agree that allowing “third party” access to our digital health records can improve health care provision for everyone. </p>
<p>However, whenever there is talk of letting patients and/or third-parties access digital health data, <a href="http://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/practice-management-resources/health-informatics-group/%7E/media/Files/CIRC/POA/RCGP-Road-Map.ashx">anxiety abounds</a>. Sometimes the concern has to do with a potential unfairness in the way the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26329748">benefits and burdens</a> of data sharing fallout. In other cases, the concern is with the <a href="http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/13429.asp">harm that might befall a patient</a> if they see certain damaging or distressing information in their own records. But most of the digital disquiet is about something which is arguably more basic: confidentiality.</p>
<p>Privacy has long been at the heart of good healthcare practice. Hippocrates, the Father of (western) medicine, made this clear in his <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/hippocratic-oath-today.html">oath</a> and the organisations that <a href="http://www.gmc-uk.org/static/documents/content/Confidentiality_0513_Revised.pdf">regulate medicine</a>, <a href="http://www.nmc-uk.org/nurses-and-midwives/advice-by-topic/a/advice/confidentiality/">nursing and midwifery</a> and the <a href="http://www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/100023F1GuidanceonconfidentialityFINAL.pdf">allied healthcare professions</a> in the UK make it abundantly clear that confidentiality is essential to good professional practice. This is because the integrity of the “professional-patient” relationship depends upon it and public health cannot be achieved without it. And if confidentiality is treated in too cavalier a fashion, trust, implicit promises and human rights may all be violated.</p>
<h2>The digital revolution</h2>
<p>But does the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3RujQyYCao&app_data=%7B%22pi%22%3A%2253635_1395021191_1725552994%22%2C%22pt%22%3A%22twitter%22%7D">digital revolution</a> taking place in the NHS represent a clear and present threat to the security of health records? The answer depends, in part, on which aspect of the revolution we are taking about. The care.data project involves greater sharing of digital health records (although there is an opt-out clause) and serious concerns have been raised about such things as <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-02/04/care-data-nhs-healthcare">“jigsaw attacks”</a>. </p>
<p>But simply allowing patients online access to their own records can also lead to a loss of privacy because passwords can be hacked and people can forget to log out after accessing their online accounts. We also know that many patients who already have online access <a href="http://www.rcgp.org.uk/Clinical-and-research/Practice-management-resources/%7E/media/Files/Informatics/Health_Informatics_Enabling_Patient_Access.ashx">often share their records with family members</a>. This is not necessarily problematic, but there are clearly serious risks associated with doing this.</p>
<p>Whatever the risks, it looks like a “digital NHS” will soon be with us and it is important that we do not become too luddite about these developments. After all, paper records are not always very secure either, as anyone who has visited a relative on a hospital ward will no doubt know. </p>
<p>That said, the security of our health records matter hugely to us all and if the government wants NHS patients and NHS professionals to embrace the digital revolution it’s going to have to work much harder to ensure that we all have a <a href="http://www.medicalprotection.org/uk/press-releases/MPS-surveys-of-GPs-and-public-reveal-lack-of-information-around-caredata">better understanding</a> of what is going on and much more control over the sharing of our data.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Many of us live in a world where we can access and edit personal information online and on the move. Whether it is checking bank balances, amending grocery orders, or informing the world of our most recent…Carwyn Hooper, Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law, St George's, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.