As one of the many innocent victims of this outrageous calamity, can we really trust ANY Government or its Agencies with our personal Data and identities? I believe the answer is a resounding NO!
CALL TO ACTION: SCRAP THE ID SCHEME NOW! With the scandal around the HMRC Child Benefit data breach intensifying, even some sceptical Labour MPs are calling for a (temporary) halt to the ID cards scheme. This is not enough. MPs of all parties should be calling for the immediate and permanent scrapping of the Home Office's 'identity management' programme.Not just the card, not just the database, but also the mass 'data-sharing' that lies at the heart of government ID policy. Please take the time this weekend or sooner to write to your MP via http://www.writetothem.com/ asking that he or she demand an immediate and permanent stop to all development of ID cards and a National Identity Register. If you don't already know his or her position, you can check how your MP voted on the ID cards legislation at http://www.theyworkforyou.com/Be polite, be concise and make your points clearly. The following may help you, but please DON'T just cut & paste:Having shown such contempt for personal privacy and security, the government simply cannot be trusted with all the information that the National Identity Register will demand. Fingerprints, and a detailed record of all your ID-verified transactions is data that has NEVER been collected before, counter to some MPs' claims that "we have it all already".The HMRC data scandal clearly demonstrates the fallacy of "nothing to hide, nothing to fear". It is bad enough that the government can't look after families' financial details - if allowed to proceed, in a few short years the Home Office will be leaking or losing people's complete identity records. And the more data it has, the worse it will get.Contrary to government assertion, biometrics WILL NOT secure your official record - but they will make it more valuable to fraudsters and organised crime. If the government really locked your ID record with your fingerprint, it would have to ask you every time that any official wanted to look at your information. This is plainly not the intention - and when breaches do happen, you won't be able to change your fingers like you can an account number.
Sunday 25 November 2007
MISSING DISCS - WHOSE HEAD SHOULD ROLL?
As one of the unsuspecting victims of this disgraceful fiasco, read the following article and let me know what you think.
Police are searching buildings belonging to courier firm TNT in the hunt for the missing computer discs at the centre of a massive political row as it emerged that another six discs have vanished.
Scotland Yard confirmed that the search of the HM Revenue and Customs child benefit office in Washington, Tyne and Wear, from which the discs were sent, was completed without finding any trace of the missing package.
But HMRC said that all the evidence pointed towards the discs - which contain personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants - still being on their premises.
The department also confirmed it was looking for another lost package containing six discs which went missing in the post after being sent on October 10 from a tax credit office in Preston to its Whitehall HQ in London.
These discs held recordings of phone conversations between an individual tax credit claimant and an HMRC helpline, which were despatched through an internal mail system operated by TNT - the same courier service used to send the two child benefit discs from Washington to London last month.
Neither TNT nor Scotland Yard would confirm the locations of premises being searched by police. The company has a depot at Houghton le Spring, Tyne and Wear, not far from HMRC's Washington child benefit offices.
A TNT spokesman said the company was co-operating fully with the police investigation ordered by Chancellor Alistair Darling on November 15, five days after he was informed of the discs' disappearance.
But the company stressed that, as HMRC did not use track-and-trace services for the mailing, there was no way of proving whether or not the package ever entered its system.
"We have been given absolutely no proof either from HMRC or from the police that these discs ever entered the TNT system, let alone that we have mislaid them," said a company spokesman. "HMRC confirmed to us last night that they use two other companies for internal mail."
An HMRC spokesman confirmed that the agency used other courier services, but declined to identify them. The hunt for the missing discs was "wide-ranging and comprehensive" and would look into every aspect of where they could be, he said, adding: "All the evidence points to the fact that these discs are still on our premises."
Firm searched for missing discs
Police are searching buildings belonging to courier firm TNT in the hunt for the missing computer discs at the centre of a massive political row as it emerged that another six discs have vanished.
Scotland Yard confirmed that the search of the HM Revenue and Customs child benefit office in Washington, Tyne and Wear, from which the discs were sent, was completed without finding any trace of the missing package.
But HMRC said that all the evidence pointed towards the discs - which contain personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants - still being on their premises.
The department also confirmed it was looking for another lost package containing six discs which went missing in the post after being sent on October 10 from a tax credit office in Preston to its Whitehall HQ in London.
These discs held recordings of phone conversations between an individual tax credit claimant and an HMRC helpline, which were despatched through an internal mail system operated by TNT - the same courier service used to send the two child benefit discs from Washington to London last month.
Neither TNT nor Scotland Yard would confirm the locations of premises being searched by police. The company has a depot at Houghton le Spring, Tyne and Wear, not far from HMRC's Washington child benefit offices.
A TNT spokesman said the company was co-operating fully with the police investigation ordered by Chancellor Alistair Darling on November 15, five days after he was informed of the discs' disappearance.
But the company stressed that, as HMRC did not use track-and-trace services for the mailing, there was no way of proving whether or not the package ever entered its system.
"We have been given absolutely no proof either from HMRC or from the police that these discs ever entered the TNT system, let alone that we have mislaid them," said a company spokesman. "HMRC confirmed to us last night that they use two other companies for internal mail."
An HMRC spokesman confirmed that the agency used other courier services, but declined to identify them. The hunt for the missing discs was "wide-ranging and comprehensive" and would look into every aspect of where they could be, he said, adding: "All the evidence points to the fact that these discs are still on our premises."
I will tell you a story on another posting about Data Protection, etc, which you might find interesting - and worrying.
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