The Real Test of Identity Resolution
By Robert Barker, Infoglide Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer
So the title “Catching Terrorists and Making the World a Safer Place” certainly caught my eye! And the content of the post did not disappoint, as the author Chris Boorman of Informatica did a great job of crystallizing the issue that drove the creation of this blog over two years ago: “So how do we balance the freedom of movement we have come to expect as hard-working citizens with the need to spot terrorists?” His answer is “technology” and of course we agree.
When Identity Resolution Daily first began in the summer of 2007, we pointed out the constant tension between freedom and privacy versus the need for security:
In the US, the debate between personal privacy (and perhaps liberties in general) versus security is a long-standing one with roots in the very founding of the nation itself. Folks interested in obtaining data often wonder how much people are willing to give up in the name of greater security or convenience. On the other hand, those more focused on privacy worry about how data is obtained, what it’s used for and where it ends up.
Infoglide CEO Mike Shultz also discussed the responsibility that comes with providing technology that deals with identity:
It was important to all of us here that we didn’t create some sort of Big-Brother-enabling technology. As a result, we designed software that can resolve identities across multiple sources while protecting data privacy and security.
The point he made about the design of the software being critical is vital, and The Center for Digital Government’s white paper entitled “Resolving Identity: The Importance of Who’s Who and the Search for the Perfect Engine” delves into what technology can do to answer questions like “who’s who” and “who’s related to whom.”
In a more recent post, we talked about the components needed for an effective identity resolution solution. It’s not enough to have great similarity matching algorithms, and it’s not even enough to be able to find hidden connections in real time across millions of rows of data, although both those capabilities are obviously required. The real test in catching terrorists and making the world a safer place using identity resolution is how decision-making is automated and integrated into existing business processes.
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