Will your personal data be safe under a Tory government?

More comment on the Queen's Speech, this time from Edward Heathcoat-Amory.

[M]inisters never tire of telling us, we are facing a national emergency, and must all make sacrifices.

Most of us would rather those sacrifices involved slightly fewer laws protecting our personal data, or less rights to flexible working or paternity leave, than the sacrifice the Government currently has in mind, which is a massive increase in our tax burden.

Slightly fewer laws protecting our personal data? What the hell is he talking about? If anything, we need tougher laws.

He tries to link the burden of regulation on business to the massive increase in taxes we will soon have to pay. True, there is too much regulation of business and it is too complex but that is not what caused the massive leap in our national debt. If anything, it was the failure to regulate the banks properly that means we will now be paying for their bailouts for the next few years.

This is not the first time that Tory MPs or their allies in the media have hinted at repealing the Data Protection Act. Last year, the party's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group said:

Data Protection.

We recommend the repeal of this expensive bureaucracy, which fails to protect people’s data. The ever growing power of the internet and computers means we all end up on ever more lists, whether we want to or not.

But at least the DPA gives us some protection. Without it, we would have no comeback at all against companies and public bodies that misuse our data.

Why have some Tories got it in for the Data Protection Act? Is it because their friends in the corporate world could make a lot more money if they could do what they liked with our personal data?

Imagine what companies could do with biometric data or information leaked from the DNA database. The insurance industry would love it. They could screen out anyone at risk of disease, thus reducing their claims payouts and vastly increasing their profits.

There are still people in the Conservative Party whose main priority is helping their friends in big business to get richer. Despite all the anti-ID card rhetoric, they would happily remove what little protection people have against the abuse of their personal data, if it meant higher profits for their corporate backers.

Comments

[Rastaman]

Excuse me but when did politics start having anything to do with protecting personal data? Anything anyone wants to know about -almost- anybody, is accessible now. There are companies that make their money by sweeping the Internet for connections between ISP's, logging the emails between people and selling the information. There are companies that sell criminal records, financial histories, virtually anything. Anything that anyone has done that has been recorded on a computer is accessible. That's the purpose of those hundreds of thousands of worms and viruses, in case you wondered what they were for. They make everything on an infected computer available to the hacker, who then sells or uses the information.

The only people who are relatively safe from this are those who don't file income taxes, pay cash for everything and always use a false name whenever possible. Like muslims.

No one is covering all the exits. Your personal information was compromised a long time ago, not just by your government but also by every corporation that sees an advantage in knowing things about you, such as any venereal disease you may have had, or how much liquor you purchase.

So don't worry about it, because it was too late a long time ago. Just do what you do and pretend no one knows about some of your little habits. They do, you know.

[G. Tingey]

I hate to agree with Rastaman on anything but he's right.

What he - and you - DON'T say is the way in which we are regulated and controlled.

Britian has all the apparat of a Police state.
It just isn't being used ( much / yet )

When you put together the provisions of the following:
Serious & Organised Crime Act
Police & Criminal Evidence Act
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act
plus the current proposals for not only ID cards, but the "proof of ID if you have entered Britain"

We have a completely Stalinist or Nazi apparatus, presently lying idle.

How long before it is activated?