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Computer fortress 'stormed'

'Having regard to the fact that data-banks can store any amount of information of every conceivable character on a person, the dangers are so obvious that we oppose the whole idea of a national data-bank, on principle.'

The Invasion of Privacy, D. Madgwick T. Smythe.

While this quote describes proposals for Great Britain, it is equally applicable to the nearly-completed Law Enforcement Information System (LEIS) This 'Justice Data-Bank' is a large computer costing at least $23 million on 1972 figures. It will be connected to 197 telephone terminals for information input and output, 84 of them to be controlled by the police. The system will run continuously, monitoring information on the lives of over 1½ million New Zealanders.

The files of the Ministry of Transport, the State Services Commission and the Police and Justice Departments will be stored here. No details have been given on just what information the files will contain, but the police have revealed they will keep a file of incidents which are noted by the police, but which do not result in a court hearing. Details of Missing persons will be recorded, although they may not have committed an offence. The computer's machinery has already been imported from the US and installed in a concrete fortress beside the Wanganui River. Programming of files and connection of telephone terminals is due for completion in 15 months. The Government may not have any legislation by then to control the use of the computer.

This is a tremendously elaborate and expensive machine for a country the size of NZ. We do not have a high crime rate, despite the daily papers' efforts to create the illusion of one. The Government is already troubled by inefficiency with the present, and much smaller, Government Computer Centre.

The extreme secrecy of the (LEIS) system makes it hard to believe that the public has nothing to fear from it.

To draw attention to the dangers of the data-bank and to assess local reaction to it, the Progressive Youth Movement organised a demonstration in Wanganui over Queen's Birthday Weekend.

A lengthy leaflet has already been distributed to many parts of town, and for two days everyone concentrated on knocking on doors and asking what locals thought of this and other computer systems. One point which this door-knocking revealed, was that most people considered $23 million a shocking waste of money, when what Wanganui really needed was a sewage treatment plant, to prevent raw sewage being discharged into the Wanganui River.

Full results of the survey aren't yet known, but this technique of door-knocking has certainly stimulated an awareness and discussion of the computer which may well help to decide its acceptance.

One thing pointed out to Wanganui residents was the growing power of the police. Already, police raids on the Auckland Medical Clinic have provided them with confidential information on legal abortions and the files of a psychiatrist have been raided and photo-copied. This, and other evidence, indicates that police have no respect whatever for personal privacy, or confidential information. Yet they will be entrusted with this information on 1½ million people. The excuse that the computer will prove useful to 'fight crime' is a very weak minded one. Experience with similar systems in the US show they don't cause a permanent decrease in real crime. Present NZ techniques like the Auckland Task Force show the same result. Instead, the national data-bank can be used by the State to consolidate it's own power. The databank building itself is a truly frightening structure, built as if to withstand a seige. It is a solid concrete shell, with a row of windows about 40' above the ground. At first, a LEIS spokesman claimed this was to create 'a dust-free environment', but computer experts have said no computer system requires this sort of protection. The concrete edge of the roof is curved, apparently to resist the use of grappling irons. There is only one external door in the building, and internal doors are reported to be fitted with combination locks. Throughout our stay in Wanganui, the building was surrounded by policemen, and during the march, people were photographed from the top of the building.

Serious thought must be given to the lack of interest exhibited by Parliament throughout the entire planning stages. Only two major 'official' criticisms have been made, both being fairly innocuous. One, the Drayton Committee Report, released in October, recommended that the LEIS should go ahead, without giving any support for its claims of improved efficiency and economy. The report felt that any security safeguards could be attached when the computer machinery was complete.

Next, Mr. Faulkner, Minister for State Services proposed a Bill to be introduced in the house in about a month, with the ambitious aim of 'providing legislative safeguards for the individual in respect of the Law Enforcement Data System'.

Faulkner's Committee proposed the absolute minimum security legislation and gave no indication of how to carry out important steps like providing for the individual to have a copy of any information stored about himself.

Further outside submissions have [unclear: attacked] existing proposals for the computer. A society of lawyers reccomended 4 terminals, instead of 197, and urged that material be limited to factual, non-contentious matter. Other legislation plans to prevent LEIS from inter-locking with any other computer system, and restricts one Department from using the files of another.

The important point is that these measures can only guard against conventional use of the information. Any security device can be abused by the farreaching powere of the police and the SIS. If some provision is made for public access to individual files, the information obtained from informers, wire-tapping, police 'observers', all evidence which is insufficient to bring a case, will be stored in secret elsewhere.

In addition, the LEIS system is only the latest in a series of Government computer projects. So far, taxation, education, traffic and medical data have been computerised. After LEIS will come a large-scale Statistical Information Centre, the computerised electoral role to 'keep a close check on the movement of electors', plus further computerised hospital data. In 1970, the State Services Commission announced plans for a national computer network; '... by more rapid retrieval of required information, by sharing the use of equipment, by sharing files, the Government has the potential to save millions of dollars of your money'. Privacy is a component part of freedom, and much of our personal privacy will be lost for good if the move towards a national State computer is not halted now.