Learning Oracle PL/SQL

The Problem

These anecdotes, and others like them, reflect attacks on two fundamental rights. The first is privacy. Now, one man's privacy violation is another's "tailored advertising experience," but a database of personal information, collected without knowledge or consent and later brazenly sold for profit, simply reeks of manipulation and exploitation. And no sane person would excuse the hospital's endangering that young family's safety. I will not explore privacy issues further here but will refer you to other works, such as Simson Garfinkel's Database Nation (O'Reilly).

It is the second attack I will focus on, because it has not received the same amount of attention as privacy. The problem is the reduction of an individual to a "consumer unit." Many databases in the world, particularly in public-oriented businesses, are promoting and defending the idea that humans exist solely to generate profit for others.

Consider the evidence I presented from the credit industry. Defenders would assert that credit is a huge service to those individuals who couldn't otherwise afford a new car, a widescreen TV, or whatever. And I say, I've met people, good people, who have a hard time saying no to things they don't need. Debt and spending addiction are two problems growing in part as a result of manic promotions and advertising by credit companies. At one of these firms, I met a staffer who rationalized: "I don't choose to live my life on credit, but if our customers do, that's their ...