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UK Government lost personal data on 4M
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by Jason Sanders | August 22, 2008 at 11:31 am
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Known as the most surveilled western country, Britain's government keeps extensive records on most of its citizens; but, as recently released reports from Whitehall indicate, they've lost a lot. The BBC decided to add up the 'data loss' incidents and arrived at a very large number. Here’s a few stories:
- HM Revenue Customs, which infamously lost the details of 25 million child benefits claimants
- Justice admitted it had lost 45,000 people's details throughout the year
- Home Office announced it had lost the data of 3,000 seasonal agricultural workers
- Department for Transport lost the data of three million learner drivers
- Foreign Office, which lost 190 people's data in five incidents
- Ministry of Defence said it had lost a laptop containing the details of 620,000 recruits and potential recruits, and some information on 450,000 referees for job applicants.
- UK government revealed over 11,000 military ID cards have been lost or stolen
- two NHS trusts lost unencrypted laptops containing 31,000 patient records. In May, 38,000 patient records on tape were lost
A very sad state of affairs these (calculated) four million people. Thankfully, some politicians have started to see the effects of mass data storage, and are working on plans to protect, or limit, data about residents.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 05:43 on August 25th, 2008
No reason not to let an integrated ID card, biometric passport, complete NHS medical record and chip in your head go ahead! … maybe. http://notnews.today.com/?p=36