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Some UK Councils Barred From Using Gov't Vehicle Database
Bruce66423 writes "A number of British councils are being banned from accessing the national Vehicle Database system. While sometimes this appears to be due to technical infractions, the banning of some 'permanently' seems to be as a result of more serious misdemeanours. Trust the government? Not a good idea..."
Trust the government? Not a good idea..."
Why not? The government taking action where they find indications of abuse. Surely that cannot be a problem?
The fact that there are users and user organizations making improper use of the data is how the world works. That is why "the government" check and ban those who abuse the data.
Government is itself good but the people in it are not always worth our trust. Whats important here is that people in greater power are doing something that seems to be in the best interest of citizens and regardless if some people were abusing the system or not steps are being taken to resolve that.
http://interserver.net/
Don't allow councils to have access to the vehicle registration database in the first place.
The Data Protection Act only allows disclose for the purposes of "prevention and detection of crime". With parking enforcement now run as a cash cow, outsourced to Parking Pataweyo, and overseen by the Kangaroo Kourts, the DVLA shouldn't be handing out our personal information to any mugger with a lettehead who pays their access fee.
The Information Commissioner needs to be sinking his teeth into this racket, hard.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
> Trust the government? Not a good idea...
More accurate: Trust government workers? Not a good idea.
Business can pay big bucks, if you work hard so attracts the sort of person who works for business: Hard working. Motivated.
Government pays the same no matter how good or bad a job you do. It attracts the exact opposite. The irony is these are the people that end up holding all the power and they end up with job security business can only dream of. They very rarely get into trouble. Instead of adding infractions took place their bosses hush the whole thing up. When money is wasted or stolen, why make a scandal. It's only the taxpayers money after all.
Reforming corruption in government needs to look at the type of person attracted to government jobs.
Don't forget that DVLA have historically been rather lax in who they'll give information to. Many supermarkets and retail parks have their 2 hours free parking monitored by a private sector company. Many of these don't put an enforcement notice on your windscreen if you overstay, but use the DVLA database to send you the £75 fine by post. Some use ANPR cameras to 'clock' you entering and leaving, which removes the need for human enforcement officers, while some even go one step further and keep records of every stay, so if you make several short trips over the course of a day, they'll either work out your total aggregate stay or (even sneakier) use your first entry time and last exit time...
The Government is not at fault it is made up of people and the people are at fault. Government would probably be much better if we remembered that.
We should even give them MORE money!
Raise our taxed.
All that money will be put to good use!
Won't it?
Give them guns to defend against terrorist threats, and in short order these guns will find their way in to traffic control and refuse collection enforcement. Same with laws and procedures introduced ostensibly to keep us safe from rage-fueled inadequate virgins.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3333366/Half-of-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-bin-crimes.html
This isn't just a local council thing. Take the BBC as an example. Laws, such as RIPA, are sold as being essential for tackling serious crime and terrorism. Transpires that it's pretty useful for tackling TV licence evasion.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/21/local-councils-abusing-anti-terrorism-powers_n_1819715.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/22/ripa_bigbrotherwatch/
Laws and processes need to be way more specific in scope. No point in trying to punish abuse if the guidelines aren't already clear. Where they are clear, personal accountability must be seen to happen. I generally don't blame individuals. Give a man a hammer, with poor oversight, and it's not surprising every problem becomes a nail. I think most of us have skirted policy or the law a little for the sake of expediency - even just simple shit like failing to take a legally mandated break. Better oversight and transparency is needed. When a state body intercepts communication or otherwise spies on people, make the numbers and reasons available. Some of this already happens if people bother to make a Freedom of Information Act request. That's assuming it isn't buried in an exemption. Revealing such activities could of course be undesirable for two reasons:
1) It allows criminals to better understand the tactics being used.
2) It would expose the wasteful use of these procedures and their application in petty matters.
Just posting to rub this in the face of all the "but government can save us from all our woes" idiots on this website. Government makes all the "right" decisions, excpet when is doesn't. Keep praying to your Philosopher Kings.
How can you turn up your nose at straw-man UK bashing then immediately bash the US on no grounds at all?
It always seems odd that Americans on slashdot enjoy bashing the US government almost as much as Europeans do, yet when it is a European government's turn, it is defended with such fervor by it's constituents. Hell, in this case Gordonjcp managed to do both.
Up until recently I worked for Trading Standards - we would request DVLA data on a regular basis (e.g. for investigating suspected 'clocked' vehicles, investigating a vehicle used by a person who has been doorstepping and conning the elderly). The DVLA are very strict with access and requests for information - to the extent that on occassions they make it very difficult to obtain information in a timely manner.
I have not heard of any Trading Standards depts having their access revoked. But the DVLA are very hot on ensuring that all requests are logged and full justification for each and every request is given and recorded- any slip ups at all and your access would be suspended pending a full audit. I can imagine that many local authorities may have made errors in recording their requests, but I would be extremely suprised if any were accessing the data for nefarious purposes.