If a doctor gets a patient with an unknown illness he starts checking for the most likely cause and works his way down the list to the least likely. Most people would consider this way of approaching a problem to be the best and most reasonable way. However, when a human or a computer does the exact same thing when they're scanning/checking potential criminals/terrorists some people all of a sudden consider this method of checking the most likely person based on statistical evidence to me morally wrong? It's not at all morally wrong to check people who are statistically more likely to be criminals or terrorist. If you're arab? Sorry! You're statistically more likely to be a terrorist and will therefore be checked more. If you're black and from a certain neighborhood in america? Sorry, you're statistically more likely to be a criminal. These are FACTS. You may not like it. You may think it's unfair but if law enforcement (computers or humans) are going to catch criminals in the most efficient way possible they will check the most likely people more. That being said, humans should of course have the final word in the end but don'y be offended by a computer or human singling you out for a screening.
If a doctor gets a patient with an unknown illness he starts checking for the most likely cause and works his way down the list to the least likely. Most people would consider this way of approaching a problem to be the best and most reasonable way. However, when a human or a computer does the exact same thing when they're scanning/checking potential criminals/terrorists some people all of a sudden consider this method of checking the most likely person based on statistical evidence to me morally wrong? It's not at all morally wrong to check people who are statistically more likely to be criminals or terrorist. If you're arab? Sorry! You're statistically more likely to be a terrorist and will therefore be checked more. If you're black and from a certain neighborhood in america? Sorry, you're statistically more likely to be a criminal. These are FACTS. You may not like it. You may think it's unfair but if law enforcement (computers or humans) are going to catch criminals in the most efficient way possible they will check the most likely people more. That being said, humans should of course have the final word in the end but don'y be offended by a computer or human singling you out for a screening.