Big Brother Database
The UK Government is planning to make a big Database that contains all our data. Health, Social Security, Tax and everything else the government knows about us will be consolidated into one big database. This raises three big questions.
Since the Government has such a poor record on big database projects will this just become another gravy train for companies lile CAP Gemini and Accenture?
The next question in my mind relates to the security of this data. How can they possibly keep it secure?
Holding all this data in one place makes it especially attractive to criminals who will want access to it to steal our identities. No matter what physical security is put in place some people will alsways be amenable to large amounts of money. So we can never be sure our data is entirely safe.
The third question is use of that data by a future government.
Many people in the UK really have no understanding of history. I read in the paper that people who were asked about ID cards said they had no problem with ID cards as they were not planning to be criminals.
Maybe they also don't realise that many people in Nazi Germany were not planning to be criminals either but the Government made them so. We might trust this Governament not to abuse the data it collects but what about a future Government perhaps one rules by a BNP or a Muslim Fundamentalist Prime minister. Could we trust them too?
Should we risk giving this tool to anyone even someone we trust?
MI5 are supposed to be our strongest line of defence and should set an example to others when it comes to security, so this was a huge blunder for them. And don't forget the national DNA database which contains DNA of millions of people who have not been convicted of any offense. Even children are in the DNA database and the police don't require your permission to add yours to their collection. So if one of your hairs or flake of skin is ever found near the scene of a crime you'll be definately be in the frame - guilty until proven innocent.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/new...
Usually when a company handles confidential information for the government their key employees are subject to a lengthy screening process where their parents, siblings, spouse, and kids are also screened. It doesn't look like this happened at all with this US company, partly because they're not in the UK so it would be very difficult to carry out such checks without the help of the CIA.
Back to your point, Kevin, this is worrying stuff. The database would be accessible to some 400,000 people (civil servents etc) and it only takes 1 of them to be dishonest. And if any government agencies farm off call centres, data processing or IT functions to India then we'll be in big trouble. Many of our banks do this and on occassions personal banking details have been sold and then money stolen from accounts. Call centre staff in India don't get paid much so bribes from gangs are extreamily tempting when you're on $5 a day.