Communication and Control

For most of human history, communication and record keeping were closely connected. Letters carried information, certificates established identity, and contracts recorded agreements. The movement of information and the preservation of evidence often occurred together.

Digital communication accelerated that relationship dramatically: suddenly information could move almost instantly. Documents became attachments, which in turn became copies. Copies became archives, and archives multiplied.

This architecture worked extraordinarily well because communication was the problem new technologies had been designed to solve. But communication and control are not the same challenge.

Communication relies on moving information, while control relies on restraining movement: ensuring the right people have the right access to the right information at the right time for the right purpose.

These are fundamentally different questions. The first is concerned with transmission, while the second is concerned with stewardship. Arguably, for many years the distinction mattered little. Today it matters a great deal.

Artificial intelligence, cyber crime, identity fraud, and increasing regulatory expectations have changed the context in which personal information exists. Our information itself has become more valuable.

Perhaps the architecture through which it is managed now deserves similar attention.