SciDevNet: In the wrong hands, large datasets can do more harm than good, says Sanjana Hattotuwa. Accountability is crucial.
The policeman who came to see me was affable and just following instructions. It was 2009, near the end of Sri Lanka's brutal 27-year-old civil war, though nobody knew at the time.
He asked me to enter my personal details on a website called citizens.lk, set up by the all-powerful Ministry of Defence (MoD). I asked him politely what law required me to enter my data into the system....