Monday March 14, 2005
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Room 271
Free and Open to all!
Lunch Served
Many of the stores and websites defend their huge collections of personal information by arguing that the data is a necessary part of offering personalized, customized service. This assumption is wrong. It is possible to build a database that answers useful questions without keeping any useful information in it. This talk will offer a few demonstrations like:
* a library that thwarts deadbeats without tracking reading habits
* a store that offers almost all of the features of top flight stores like Amazon without keeping any personal information around
* a site where parents can book babysitters without keeping any information that might be useful to stalkers, thieves, kidnappers and worse.Peter Wayner is a programmer and author of 13 books including, _Translucent Databases_, an introduction to building databases that do useful work without storing useful information. A second edition of the book will be published this Fall.