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Database makes suspects of us all, watchdog warns
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor27 Feb 2009
EVERY Briton could be "a suspect" if ministers persist in extending state surveillance powers, the Government's privacy watchdog warned today.
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said "creeping surveillance" had gone "too far, too fast" and threatened to undermine the fundamental values of British society.
He added that current government proposals to log everyone's phone, email, text and internet records on a database would be a "step too far".
Mr Thomas also hit out at new data-sharing powers contained in a Coroners and Justice Bill which is before Parliament - saying they should be "narrowed" - and raised further concerns about the scope of the national DNA database, the growing use of CCTV cameras, and the impact of the new ContactPoint database with details of all the nation's children.
Ministers continue to insist that surveillance remains proportionate. But Mr Thomas said: "In the last 10 or 15 years a great deal of surveillance has been extended without sufficient thought to the risks and consequences."
Mr Thomas said he was particulary worried about plans - due to be announced soon - for new powers which will enable the Government to store on a huge new database the computer, phone and other electronic records of all British residents. He suggested this would lead to unacceptable intrusion and added: "We've got to have a much clearer distinction between those who are suspects and everybody else.
"I think we're at risk of making everybody a suspect if we go too far down this road."
Mr Thomas was also critical of the new ContactPoint children's database and said a better option would be to retain only the records of those who were at risk. He expressed similar concerns about the use of CCTV in classrooms by some schools and of the recent Met Police demand that a pub in Islington instal cameras to film all its customers as they entered and left.
In a separate development today, ministers were reported to be trying to find a way round a European court ruling which condemned their keeping the DNA of innocent Britons on the national database.
At the moment, about 800,000 such samples are stored and the Home Office insists that keeping them is an important crime-fighting tool since they have been used to convict those who, when the sample was taken, did not have had a criminal record.
Ministers, who have been told by the European court to make a stronger case, are now understood to be assembling details of these cases to convince judges.
Surveillance society
The National DNA Database
Holds the records of about 4.5 million people, including details of about 800,000 who have never been convicted of a crime, and 1.1 million children.
ID cards
The first cards - for foreign nationals - were issued last year and are due to be rolled out for British citizens under a £4.7 billion scheme over the next few years. It will eventually involve the biometric details of all citizens being kept on a national database.
CCTV
At least 4.2 million cameras are thought to be in use. Common locations include shops, transport networks and streets, but some are also being installed in schools and pubs.
Contact Point
New national children's database has been set up at a cost of £224 million to store the name, address, date of birth and other information of every child in the country.
Communications database Proposals that would enable the retention of the phone, computer and other electronic records of all residents are due to be unveiled shortly in a bid to ensure that police and the security service continue to be able to trace the activities of criminals.
Reader views (14)
Carl Barron's ( Chairman of agpcuk )comments appear somewhat naive. The whole point of most people's anxieties about their private data is that is relies entirely on the 'honesty' of everyone who has access to it without any legislation being enacted to punish those who mis-use the data. I don't think there will be one citizen of the U.K. who considers any politician or civil-servant 'honest' in the true sense of the word and repeated reports of data being 'lost' thru stolen laptops mean that all a quisling has to do is leave their office computer in a taxi for a CIA operative to pick up. Nod and Wink surveillance is now a fact of life - as the media know full well because they benefit from it. Of course all such files should be auto-encrypted but anyone wanting to pass on private data would presumably also pass on the password too! The sad fact is that there is no privacy any more. Gone never to return - yet this is exactly what the Data Protection laws were originally meant to protect us from. Britain is no longer a democracy - it is a Stalinist state.
- Tony Rhodes, Mortlake, England, 03/03/2009 11:46
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If all this surveillance is meant to protect us then why was there no footage of the 7/7 alleged bombers from all the CCTV camera's that should have captured them? I wonder how many people know that the firms who own these camera's are Zionist companies?
All this surveillance is not for our benefit it is for the benefit of a corrupt government.
- Northern Tracey, London, England, 02/03/2009 13:17
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There is of course a rider to all this. Information correctness, it is assembled by faceless people so accuracy is suspect from the start!
I often have to smile when I see these credit agencies inviting us to check our status. It only leads to them getting their records straight:-)
- Tony Islander, Herts, 28/02/2009 16:38
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Life imitates art (science fiction novels).
- Trunk, US, 28/02/2009 15:49
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No doubt....Orwell's visions weren't that excentric after all...and with the future developments of informatics it will be more & more so...
- Andre, switzerland, 28/02/2009 15:40
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Big brother may find he has an even ‘Bigger Brother’ watching him. This surveillance and Data Collection Technology may already be being used by Counter Intelligence Services from other counties.
As already disclosed many times via the media, the Data the Government does have is very loosely guarded. Laptops left in public places, CD discs and DVD Discs left in public places.
To cap it all they still want to store more of our private and personal data. British National Security is becoming a bad joke at our expense.
Signed
Carl Barron
Chairman of agpcuk
Action Group for the Protection of Communities UK
- Carl Barron, Dorset, 28/02/2009 12:36
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So the contactpoint comment is predicated on the belief that someone knows a child is at risk...misses the point that this system is partly there to help confirm the suspicion that a chid MAY be at risk and allow early intervention.
- Dudley, London UK, 28/02/2009 07:22
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Thanks you Richard Thomas for drawing attention to this important issue. When a former head of MI5 and the Information Commissioner object to such tools you have to wonder who's telling the truth.
- Jonathan, London, 27/02/2009 21:16
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OBEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Stan, Bexley, 27/02/2009 13:43
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Its creeping in by the back door, I never cease to be amazed at how the British pubic just keep excepting it.
The British Isles have gone to the dogs, the sooner I retire the better, I would then leave this once great and now wretched little country like a shot.
Well done LIEBOUR!
- George, Bexleyheath, 27/02/2009 13:40
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We in the UK are exposed to the greatest amount of surveillance in the whole of Europe (and arguably the rest of the world). We have lived in a Big Brother society for years now, the powers that be have introduced all the cameras very gradually so there wouldn't be an immediate public backlash. Now it's here and there's no getting rid of it without a revolution.
- Louise, Leeds, UK, 27/02/2009 13:17
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Suspects of what exactly? From my humble perspective, the chief perpetrators of destroying the UK all reside within 10 Downing Street or within a 2 mile radius of that address !!!
- Marianne, SW France, 27/02/2009 12:06
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Is it not time that those that devised such systems now started to produce anti ID devices that can either delete personal information of disclose who monitors who?
As things stand its a major task in tracking down who controls/inputs personal information at a given office. That issue needs immediate action.
- Tony Islander, Herts, 27/02/2009 11:34
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Doesn't Mr.Thomas realise that the police and this government already consider us all suspects? Any requirement for the police, taxman, council tax inspectors, parking attendants, etc. to actually prove guilt has been removed and you are automatically assumed to be guilty. ASBO's even wen as far as not requiring a judge to reach a decision.
- Mark, London, 27/02/2009 11:22
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