The Internet has a massive amount of information stored along its networks, possibly on each and every one of us, but according to the Chairman of World Check, a company that maintains a database of people and their connections, software applications and search engines cannot accurately trace connections between people.
What the World Check database contains are the names of people who are high profile and well known in the public eye such as politicians and celebrities, along with names of individuals who are considered to be “high risk” in that they could be tied to criminal organisations, terrorist activities or have connections with countries or political groups that automatically make them high risk.
The names included in the World Check database, which is also used by banks and other institutions that have an interest in finding out more about certain individuals are “almost always – 99.9 percent – internet based” said David Leppan the Executive Chairman and Founder of World Check.
Thankfully they are not relying purely on software to determine these relationships or basically we’re all in trouble. So what happens if you are identified as being a high risk individual? Well World Check documents any relationships by taking information from multiple sources on the Internet.
It isn’t done by an automated system, it is performed by analysts employed by World Check who go through all the available information identifying high risk individual s and documenting their relationships with other people.
Software just wouldn’t be able to do it according to World Check. Leppan cited an interesting example. When a software programme was used by US intelligence agencies in order to establish relationships between people it came up with Osama bin Laden as a connection to George W Bush. Now that’s funny but pretty scary at the same time.
“There is still a long way to go on using applications to insinuate or to identify possible relationships,” Leppan said.
I would think so too. Although software is becoming more and more advanced, there are always going to be occasions when they get it completely wrong and where people’s freedom and reputations are involved, even one mistake is a mistake too many.
Apparently the main problem with software is that when names appear in various sources there is no explanation of the type of relationship that might exist, for example whether it’s personal or business, and no software can intuitively decide that.
. “I’m not yet aware of a program that can read between the lines,” Leppan said.
