2022

chapter in monograph

english

EN This chapter analyses the main problems of electronic information gathering and distribution (multiple systems of card indexes and registries) in Communist security police in Poland. The security police developed multiple and issued. From 1960 to the very end of the Communist dictatorship in Poland, numerous electronic systems – databases comprising information on suspicious persons as well as systems enabling information evaluation – were developed and introduced. In the chapter, the systems and databases that were used, their benefits and limitations are described in detail. The efficiency of the electronic tools came in conflict with the security police’s professional culture. Even though the specific rules for the registration and processing of data underwent several major transformations (some of which were later withdrawn), the paramount duty to maintain the secrecy of the data and their own operations ultimately turned out to be incompatible with efficient reporting and evaluation of information. Another main problem was the sheer amount of data. It turns out that the gains of electronic systems which were supposed to enhance and speed up access to data and enable quick and proficient evaluation of information were undone by internal secrecy rules that thwarted the interchangeability of the systems.

2022

184 - 205

https://www.routledge.com/Intelligence-Agencies-Technology-and-Knowledge-Production-Data-Processing/Bergien-Gerstenberger-Goschler/p/book/9780367706395#

Intelligence Agencies, Technology and Knowledge Production : Data Processing and Information Transfer in Secret Services During the Cold War

The Knowledge of Intelligence – Scientification, Data Processing and Information Transfer in Secret Services, 1945 -1990, 28-29.06.2019, Potsdam, Germany

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