UK Government To Back Off Plans To Share Private Data

Richard Rothwell writes with news that Jack Straw, Britain's Justice Secretary, has made public plans to drop provisions from the Coroners and Justice Bill which would have allowed the government to take information gathered for one purpose and use it for any other purpose. "A spokesman for Mr Straw said the 'strength of feeling' against the plans had persuaded him to rethink. The proposals will be dropped entirely from the Coroners and Justice Bill, and a new attempt will be made to reach a consensus on introducing a scaled-back version at an unspecified stage in the future." After defending the government's intentions, Straw bowed to pressure from a variety of groups and individuals who presented objections to the bill.

Comments

Re:Orwell's 1984

[zrq]

The British government have not set out to control the populace, that will just be a purely unintentional side-effect.

They don't seem to realize what this many mean 5 or 10 years from now. The current government might not be planning to (mis)use these powers, but a future one might.

Another terrorist attack could get a fanatical nutter elected into government, and we are handing them a ready made police state. All the tools for complete control of the population installed and ready for (mis)use, all they would need to do is find an appropriate justification ... and once you start (mis)using it, it is very hard to stop.