Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

New Plan In UK For "Big Brother" Database

Posted by kdawson on from the for-our-own-good dept.

POPE Mad Mitch writes "The BBC is reporting that Tony Blair is going to unveil plans on Monday to build a single database to pull together and share every piece of personal data from all government departments. The claimed justification is to improve public services. The opposition party and the Information Commission have both condemned the plan as another step towards a 'Big Brother' society. Sharing information in this way is currently prohibited by the 'over-zealous' data protection legislation. An attempt to build a similar database was a key part of the, now severely delayed, ID card scheme."

9 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Good luck... by ShaunC · · Score: 4, Informative

    They've already tried it once, and so has the FBI/DOJ, both of them dropping the ball and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars/pounds. A modest team of pros should be able to complete a project like this for far less money and in a reasonable amount of time, it's getting to where I don't think they actually intend to make these systems function, it's just a money pit. Another pork project for the IT consultancies who happen to know the right people.

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
  2. organise! by anadem · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is where the UK needs a "Move On" to organise citizen opposition. Britons should stop thinking of themselves as "subjects".

    1. Re:organise! by l-ascorbic · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is No2ID which organises resistance to such things, including defence funds for people who refuse to register for ID cards and the National Identity Database. They have been quite successful. The public opposition to the ID Database has increased massively over the past year, which is probably why the govt is doing this. By integrating existing databases, they needn't rely on anyone registering.

  3. European Digital Privacy Directive? by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_ 201/l_20120020731en00370047.pdf

    http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/200 2dltr0014.html

    Does GB intend to withdraw from the EU?

    If so, the "Big Brother" talk is more than idle literary reference. We can move forward with renaming Britannia to "Airstrip One."

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
    1. Re:European Digital Privacy Directive? by mrogers · · Score: 4, Informative
      Information can only be gathered and used for a specified purpose - you can't "reuse" information for purposes other than those for which it was gathered.

      With a new database the government could get round this by specifying a very broad range of purposes for the data (as Transport For London did with the Oyster card), but that tactic can't be applied to an existing database.

    2. Re:European Digital Privacy Directive? by Blue+Stone · · Score: 2, Informative

      Information can only be gathered and used for a specified purpose - you can't "reuse" information for purposes other than those for which it was gathered. Maybe they have a specific purpose - they only need to cstate it - they want to have a broad overview of everyone's behaviour so they can lock them up if their assessment of that behaviour indicates that they may become a future criminal:[Empasis mine]

      The government is planning "behaviour orders" for people considered to be at risk of committing a violent crime. The orders, similar in principle to Asbos, would put curfews or other restrictions on potential offenders, who might have no criminal convictions.

      The Sunday Times reported that "risk factors" that could lead to a person being subject to an order would include a person's upbringing, "cognitive deficiencies", "entrenched pro-criminal or antisocial attitudes", or "a history of substance abuse or mental health issues".

      Link - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6261791.stm
      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  4. Re:Civil Rights: USA or Europe? by timeOday · · Score: 2, Informative

    The UK is half "Europe" and half "America Jr." They track the US much more closely than the rest of Europe (if you hadn't noticed through the whole Iraq issue).

  5. Re:Does this ring a bell? by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 4, Informative

    Brazil was a film made by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python Fame. I'm not sure if there was/is a book.
    Try going to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/

    Note that the working title for the film was 1984 and a Half. This puts where it is coming from perfectly.

    --
    I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
  6. Re:UK, US, doesn't matter really by jimicus · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's not an obviously silly objection.

    We already have an equivalent of the US social security number - the National Insurance number. Your doctor has it, the taxman has it, the benefits office have it. Why can't they just tie that up with an address? That way everyone knows about a change of address, but the taxman still doesn't have to know about that nasty rash you had last year.