IBM researcher eyes databases with a conscience. Hippocratic database specifies to users how collected data will be used [InfoWorld: Top News]
"Right now, if you look at a database, they just keep records but there is no instructions about what you can do with the data. [With a Hippocratic database], when you collect data you attach a reason for why you are collecting the data."
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"Making a database forget something is an extremely hard thing to do. The way [the W3C] standard is written, it does the initial check but after that there is no enforcement. We have started thinking about how to add enforcement."
The Hippocratic database sets limits on the amount of time the data can be used for the stated purposes -- perhaps up to one month for issues directly related to the purchase, one year for recognizing customers when they return and three years for basic registration -- and then ensures the information is cleared from the database.
This caught my eye because of the threat of Big Brother Ashcroft wanting to check library patron's borrowing records. From my systems work with the Innovative Interfaces software, I know that it's next to impossible for me to retrieve much information about patron borrowing habits, which is a good thing. I can find currently checked out items and holds etc, but the only historical information is who last checked out a particular book. This is probably in case we find that the book has been damaged. Of course, if Ashcroft wanted to do some data mining in the underlying Oracle database, that's another issue and all bets are off. I don't know enough about Oracle to know whether it can forget data in the same way that this Hippocratic database could, but I doubt it. Hopefully library software developers might be able to make use of this technology to frustrate legislative folly.
4:48:15 PM 
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