Oracle's Ellison says U.S. should centralize data
By Judith Crosson
DENVER, July 19 (Reuters) - Larry Ellison, chief executive
of Oracle Corp. <ORCL.O> on Friday renewed his campaign for a
government-initiated database of U.S. medical and criminal
records, the kind of sweeping and controversial project the No.
2 software vendor has offered to undertake before.
"There should be one system," Ellison told some 3,000
attendees at Colorado Gov. Bill Owens' third annual technology
conference in Denver.
A unified system would be both cheaper and safer,
eliminating many of the current problems in health care and
criminal justice, he said.
For example, patients risk adverse drug reactions because
one pharmacy that fills a prescription has no way of knowing
another pharmacy might have provided a second drug that could
make the patient sick if both were taken together.
"Government should take a lead in this so we can stop
killing people," Ellison said.
Centralized database systems would also allow emergency
medical personnel to better treat someone in an accident far
from home and help police departments better track criminals,
he said.
"You're saying 'What a threat to privacy,'" he said to an
audience that seemed sometimes skeptical that such information
could be responsibly entrusted to a single system.
PRIVACY BARTERED FOR CREDIT
But Ellison, who founded Oracle in 1977 after a deal with
the Central Intelligence Agency that helped launch the firm,
said security would be enhanced, not diminished, by
centralizing control of sensitive data.
"You barter 100 percent of your financial privacy in
exchange for credit," he said, referring to credit card
companies' use of central databases to assess credit standing.
Besides, he said, a central database with controls would be
more secure than leaving records at a physician's office where
employees have access to them.
Oracle has maintained close ties to federal, state and
local governments and such contracts make up an estimated 25
percent of its revenue.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the company
joined a partnership to focus on airport security. At one
point, Ellison also offered to supply the government software
to create a national ID system to thwart terrorists.
More recently, Oracle became the center of a controversy
over a major sale of its software to California, after auditors
said the contract was rushed through without competitive
bidding and could end up costing taxpayers too much.
Oracle defended the agreement and produced its own analysis
of the deal to show that it would actually save the state
millions of dollars over the life of the contract.
Oracle shares closed at $9.72 on Friday, less than half of
its 52-week high of $20.
But Ellison mocked the idea that depressed stock prices,
layoffs in technology and the disappearance of scores of
dot-com companies spelled the demise of the information
economy.
"It's just the dawn of the Information Age. You ain't seen
nothing yet," Ellison said.
He also sneaked in a jab at his arch-rival, Microsoft Corp.
<MSFT.O>, and its Chairman Bill Gates.
Oracle has promoted its software as being more secure than
competing alternatives in a bid to take advantage of
Microsoft's recent problems with hackers and viruses exploiting
loopholes in its software.
In the early months of the year, Microsoft interrupted
software development work and sent engineers on special
training at a cost of at least $100 million to improve
security.
But Ellison noted that Microsoft's high-profile
"stand-down" had come largely in February, "The shortest month
of the year," he quipped.
((Denver bureau 303-820-3900))
REUTERS
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