An alternative approach is to construct a matching algorithm based on pairs of similarly-defined fields. Data collection, validation, storage and transmission practices are such that dependence on equality of content of such fields is impracticable. Flaws in the Digital Persona From a technical perspective, there are substantial weaknesses in the digital persona arising from computer matching. Clearly, many of these concerns are diffuse. On the other hand, there is a critical economic difference between conventional forms of surveillance and dataveillance.
Physical surveillance is expensive because it requires the application of considerable resources.
Admittedly the selection criteria used by surveillance agencies have not always accorded with what the citizenry might have preferred, but at least its extent was limited. The effect was that in most countries the abuses affected particular individuals who had attracted the attention of the State, but were not so pervasive that artistic and political freedoms were widely constrained. Dataveillance changes all that. Dataveillance is relatively very cheap, and getting cheaper all the time, thanks to progress in information technology. The economic limitations are overcome, and the digital persona can be monitored with thoroughness and frequency, and surveillance extended to whole populations.