Once, the FBI's centralized criminal files seemed a gangbuster's marvel: a mere call to the computer in Washington could bring an instant rundown on a suspected Sacramento bank robber. Today Americans are more sensitive to the sinister uses of such rich stores of information. Massachusetts, for example, has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that its own statewide criminal-data system contains safeguards. Access to the files is carefully limited by law, and any citizen has the right to examine and correct any entry under his name. One crucial point: in Massachusetts arrests are not listed...
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