If I pay by means of a cheque then the potential range of dissemination increases and my name becomes identified with the transaction. This simple example illustrates how the involvement of technology serves to break down our invisible compartmental walls. Information, which would previously have been known in partial and restricted form by one person is now stored in permanent and identifiable format by a second actor in the form of the bank or credit card company involved. A single vast filing system in which all information relating to every aspect of our lives would be held. In part, this reflected the view of technology at the time.
Computers are no longer monolithic machines which occupy the whole of a building.
Today it is estimated that there are some 9,000,000 personal computers in use in the United Kingdom and if we tae account of the further millions of electronic personal organisers it is clear that computers are now to be found on street corners, not least controlling the operation of traffic lights. A modern machine sitting on the corner of a small desk contains more computing power than one of the early monsters. A development of still greater significance has been the marriage between the computer and the telecommunications system. The consequence has been that computers control the telecommunications system which in turn provides a conduit through which computers can communicate with each other. More and more, the issue is not what information is held by a particular user, a more important factor concerns the information which that user can access.