[Infowarrior] - Worst-ever threat to UK privacy

[Richard Forno]

Worst-ever threat to UK privacy: write your MP now!
Posted by Cory Doctorow, January 23, 2009 3:07 AM | permalink

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/worstever-threat-to.html


Glyn sez, "Hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill is one clause  
(cl.152) amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to  
make 'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of  
Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use  
information obtained for one purpose to be used for another."

"This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID  
Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned  
National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere  
could be accessible to any official body. If Information Sharing  
Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to  
suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build  
an early version of the National Identity Register. But the powers  
apply to any information, not just official information. They would  
permit data trafficking between government agencies and private  
companies - your medical records are firmly in their sights - and even  
with foreign governments."

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/worstever-threat-to.html