Database State Britain unwrapped by Rowntree

From the Register again

Ministers spending billions on unlawful databases

The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust

A report on the Database State PDF here claims that 40 out of 46 key government databases are not fit for purpose, and 11 of those are "almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law and should be scrapped or substantially redesigned".

The report comes as the government prepares to sneak legislation on data-sharing back into parliament despite an apparent U-turn on the idea earlier this month.

Sneaky government trying to bring back clause 152 by the back door. Jack Straw is a shyster and this shows his absolute determination to bring it back in.



Amongst the report’s key findings are:

* A quarter of the public-sector databases reviewed are almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law
* Fewer than 15 per cent of the public databases assessed in this report are effective, proportionate or necessary, and again, most lack a proper legal basis for any privacy intrusions
* Britain is out of line with other developed countries, where records on sensitive matters like healthcare and social services are held locally not centralised as in Britain
* Many of the benefits claimed for data sharing are illusory, whilst little account is taken of the serious harm that this approach can inflict on vulnerable individuals
* The current spend on IT within the UK public sector is over £16bn a year on IT, with (approximately) £100bn planned for the next five years: yet only about 30 per cent of government IT projects succeed.

Full Article in the Register here

Many of the problems with lawfulness stem from the fact that data-sharing – or processing - of some form appears to be going on despite existing Data Protection strictures against it.

It is for this reason that the government introduced the now infamous clause 152 into the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently before Parliament. Although that clause has been temporarily withdrawn, this report highlights several dozen reasons why it is inevitable that it will be back.

Because of a strict interpretation of the law, government Ministers are presently deploying billions of pounds of taxpayer dosh – and are quite possibly doing so illegally.

The trouble is that those who should be taking action are now increasingly looking the other way. The report says: "There is a sense in the senior civil service and among politicians that the personal data issue is now career-threatening and toxic.

Sounds about right for our darling politicians, Honestly we voted for these idiots?

Who let them loose You the electorate did Any regrets?

A haiku for our times

Sleepwalking into
The database state, we are;
How stupid is that?


Link here

Burying Database Law in another Bill Fencepost!

+ A CONCEALED ASSAULT ON PRIVACY +

NO2ID has been warning since 2006/7 about the stated intentions of
government "to overcome current barriers to information sharing within
the public sector" [1]. Now the Ministry of Justice has launched an
extraordinary coup. It is about to convert the Data Protection Act into
its exact opposite, a means for any government department to obtain and
use any information however it likes.

Hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill [2] is one clause (cl.152)
amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to make
'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of Parliament and
cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use information obtained
for one purpose to be used for another.

This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID
Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned
National Identity Register [3] and everything recorded about you
anywhere could be accessible to any official body.

The Database State is now a direct threat not a theory.

Quite apart from the powers in the Identity Cards Act, if Information
Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be
used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to
build an early version of the National Identity Register. But the powers
apply to any information, not just official information. They would
permit data trafficking between government agencies and private
companies - your medical records are firmly in their sights - and even
with foreign governments.


ACT NOW!

We urge you to write to your MP straight away via
http://www.WriteToThem.com - don't wait. The Bill is being rushed
through Parliament, even as we write. It contains a number of
controversial provisions, but to the casual reader appears mainly to be
about reforming inquests and sentencing.

As it progresses, NO2ID will be publishing more information but it is
crucial that every MP realises how dangerous the information sharing
clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill really are. This will only
happen if YOU tell them.

*In your own words*, please ask your MP to read Part 8 (clauses 151 -
154) of the Coroners and Justice Bill, and to oppose the massive
enabling powers in the "Information sharing" clause. The Bill is due its
Second Reading in the Commons on 26th January 2009.

Request them to demand the clause be given proper Parliamentary
scrutiny. This is something that will affect every single one of their
constituents, unlike the rest of the Bill. There is a grave danger that
the government will set a timetable that will cut off debate before
these proposals - which are at the end of the Bill - are discussed.

With support for the ID scheme crumbling, even in the Home Office's own
skewed polls - the last of which showed a 5% drop [4] - trust in the
government's handling of our personal information is at an all-time low.

A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times on 18th January shows that the public
opposes these new powers by a factor of 3 to 1 *against*. 65% of people
asked said they give government "too much power", only 19% thought not
[5]. The government can't pretend a popular mandate for what it is
doing. And it is a mechanism designed to by-pass parliament in future.
It is being done only for the convenience of the bureaucrats.

Please write NOW - http://www.WriteToThem.com - it won't take long, and
we are going to ask you again. But if you don't start now, our battle is
going to be much harder.

Please ALSO pass on or forward this part of the newsletter to friends,
family and colleagues who might share your concerns. The more people it
reaches, the more we hope will act.

We really can't afford not to win.

Ship of Fools

You might be wondering why I have chosen this title. I was passing by the television seeing the news reporting on the 200000 Britons who leave every year for new shores.

Fools! Do they not realise that Australian and New Zealand driving laws are more draconian and more punitive and more databased than the English system?

New Zealand always says it needs more skilled workers and it actively encourages stupid Britons to go there. Why do I say stupid?

Here is a question for those people emigrating. Why do you think there is a lack of skilled workers out there? Have you looked into why there are so many New Zealanders and Australians in London? Do you realise that New Zealand would not be able to cope if all those with a New Zealand passport or heritage came home to those islands? Do you know that there are more New Zealanders living outside New Zealand than there are in the mother country.


Do you not know the reasons why they have left? One very switched on New Zealander told me when I worked there briefly that New Zealand has two main exports.

Sheep and Children!

Plain fact of the matter is that both Australia and New Zealand are police states.

They have a small enough population for it to be very easy to database everyone and cross reference them to their cars and any other purchase. They even limit how much you can spend every day. Sorry I don't like that. Its too much nanny and mothering by the state and it really grates when you have a windfall because you have to spend a week spending it rather than one day.

I was forever being stopped in New Zealand because I had not purchased and databased myself with a computer referenced driving licence and therefore when I bought a car using my international driving licence the police could not cross reference the car with its driver on its database so I kept on being pulled over. Is that fair? NO

Now our government talks of bringing Identity cards and I hate the idea. Why? Probably because I know how it will be used. You will be tracked and cross referenced everywhere you go.

If they are not able to do that with you then they will stop you and ask you why you do not have so and so card or why you are not on the database etc.

I intend to leave also before that happens but to a place where all these concerns are not even going to happen

Sheeple

Sheeple of the world
Line up for your slaughter
Your bell has tolled
and you are used for barter

Your DNA is databased
Your identity can be erased
You follow blindly
and baa- baa kindly

Your wool will be shorn
Your hooves will be torn
Yet you shall follow
Being so shallow