Privacy in Data Mining

Data is one of the most important corporate assets of companies, governments and research institutions. It is now possible to have fast access to correlate information stored in independent and distant databases, to analyse and visualise data online and use data mining tools for automatic and semi-automatic exploration and pattern discovery. Knowledge discovery and data mining (KDDM) is an umbrella term describing techniques for extracting information from data and suggesting patterns in very large databases. With the expansion of computer technology, huge volumes of detailed personal data are now regularly collected and analysed by marketing applications using KDDM techniques. KDDM is also being used in other domains where privacy issues are very delicate. The FBI applied KDDM techniques to analyse crime data and reduce possibilities as part of investigations into the Oklahoma City bombing, the Unabomber case, and many other crimes. Another example is the application of KDDM to analysing medical data. While there are many beneficial applications of KDDM to these domains, individuals can easily imagine the potential damage caused by unauthorised disclosure of financial or medical records.