Database technology can be used for various ends, ranging from promotion of democracy to strengthening of nationalism to shoring up authoritarian regimes through misinformation. Its use affects ever layer of society: from individuals to households to local governments, and is a consuming issue in US government's stance on privacy, security, and technology.
Patriotic Information Systems discusses how, with its non-participatory enforcement ethos, its inherent bias against freedom of information, and its massive claims on IT budget resources, the information technology security system of the future may be even less hospitable to the democratic visions which some theorists once anticipated would be among the most important contributions of information technology to society.