A man in Los Angeles was wrongfully arrested on suspicion of burglary. The charges were dropped shortly after he had been arrested, but not before his information had made the long trip on the data expressway. The Supreme Court dismissed his case saying in effect that he had no real ongoing interest in his arrest record. In some countries, such as Canada, an individual can have the arrest information deleted from the computer and destroyed if no charges are prosecuted or the individual is found not guilty of the crime. In the United States, an individual can attempt to get his arrest record sealed, but this is a long and difficult process, and frequently it does not work because of the numerous agencies involved.
Criminal records are only one small part of the growing problem.
In some states, if child protective services is called, a person's name and birthdate goes into a central database of possible child abusers. This happens even if the charges are found to be baseless. After one visit, the accused is considered to be a potential child abuser. A national television newsmagazine profiled a woman in a medium-sized eastern city whose neighbors repeatedly called child welfare officials on her because of a grudge. After each visit, the child welfare workers would write that the allegations were baseless, and the women was a fit parent.