Privacy, identity theft and the Government

The growing weight of evidence suggests that we are in increasing danger from the UK Government losing something very important to us –­ our identities.

Government laptops and storage devices regularly go missing or are stolen while containing personal information about large sections of the population.

Over the past two years alone Whitehall has lost more than 30 million pieces of such information, from child benefit claimants to details of who’s serving time in the nation’s prisons.

The Government’s own Information Commissioner says these leaks “show deplorable failures”. Yet, despite this, Downing Street is pressing on with projects designed to collect ever more information about us all.

The private sector also has information security problems. In a few short years, the internet has revolutionised the way we shop, bank and do business in general, yet thefts of customer records and credit card data from inadequately secured companies continues to rise. Incredibly, 10 UK banks have also been censured for dumping paper records containing their customers’ personal details in public places.

As the information society grows and matures around us, what laws and other safeguards exist to protect us from the potential harm we may suffer in the increasingly likely event that who we are falls into the wrong hands?

It’s in the post
In March 2007, the National Audit Office (NAO) requested claimant records from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Specifically, the NAO asked HMRC to supply only a small section of the available data, with all names, addresses and bank details removed.

However, HMRC had no budget to extract the requested data, so instead sent two CD-Rs containing a dump of the entire 25 million record child benefit database –­ still containing full personal details. It sent the discs using a courier’s standard untracked, unrecorded service. The package arrived safely, but when sent again in October 2007, the discs never arrived. If you were claiming child benefit at the time, your details are on those discs.

During the ensuing scandal, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling told Parliament the error was down to a “junior official”. However, an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) inquiry says otherwise.