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Only six out of 46 major computer databases run by the state are “broadly in line with the law,” while the rest pose privacy “serious problems” or are illegal, experts say. In their report, Database State, legal and IT captains found just one in eight deserve a “green light,” leaving the remainder in need of immediate review or termination. It says Britain is “out of line” with its rivals by storing so much data centrally; is “the most invasive,” and is the “worst” out of any Western democracy at protecting personal privacy. Systems such as the DNA database, the Contact Point index of all children in the UK and the NHS Detailed Care Record were condemned among the 11 worst examples. Such databases, equating to a quarter of the total, deserve a “red light” for being “fundamentally flawed” and “almost certainly illegal” under data or human rights laws. They should be scrapped or overhauled, as they may collect data without people’s consent or a sound legal basis, says the report, the most detailed yet on data collection. But the report authors, of Cambridge University and commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, found another 29 “may be unlawful” or erode privacy. They said that depending on the circumstances, these databases - only deserving of an “amber light” - should be shrunk, split or made to give their subjects the right to opt out. Any incoming government should order an independent review of each of the 29 systems, which include the NHS's Summary Care Record, to identify necessary changes. They hinted politicians appear too scared to step in to stop the spread of flawed and costly databases, because they regard the "personal data issue" as "career-threatening and toxic." “No-one who values their career wants to get involved with it,” the report says. “This is irresponsible and short-sighted…the database state has been a disaster waiting to happen.” Seeming to head off the government’s likely defence that it has recently improved data security, and is taking concerns about privacy seriously, the experts were dismissive. They wrote:“The HMRC data loss was a wake-up call. But there is no sign of a change in course. Supertankers may take a long time to turn, but nobody has started to turn the wheel”. They added that the benefits of central storage and sharing of personal data claimed by ministers were “often illusory,” and said the vulnerable were most at risk from data-sharing. Citizens, they argued, should have the right to access most public services anonymously and the state should stop the tendency of collecting any of their data when they do. The report estimates that more than £16billion a year is spent on the IT behind these services, and another £105bn will be spent over the next five years. But fewer than a third of government IT projects are successful, the authors said, helping explain their most stark recommendation to ministers. “There should never again be a government IT project – merely projects for business change that may be supported by IT. Computer companies must never again drive policy.” Other recommendations include increasing the threshold for when IT projects should be referred to complex OJEU procedures to up to £10million, from the current limit of £130,000. The government was also called to make its Chief Information Officer a permanent secretary reporting to a senior minister inside the cabinet. “Britain’s database state has become a financial, ethical and administrative disaster”, said report co-author Professor Ross Adams of Cambridge University. “It also wastes billions of pounds a year and often damages service delivery rather than improving it. There must be urgent and radical change in public-sector database culture so that the state remains our servant, not our master.” Mar 24, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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