WRITTEN ON October 5th, 2008 BY Ruth Kennedy AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, Identity, What do we want?

HEY maybe there are worse places than the UK…?

Let’s consider Turkey, whose attributes of course include beautiful Azure seas, fabulous foods, wonderfully welcoming people, amazing artistry…

…but also surely the most expensive airport in the world at Dalaman (where one can of coke costs 8 Turkish Lira which is approximately £4!), and where in order to purchase something from airport duty free you have to present your passport (as opposed to the more usual request to see your boarding card). The person at the till swipes your passport codes into their electronic device, but there’s no-one to explain why, or for how long your data will be held, or with whom it might be shared. My (un-data privacy or IT-savvy) friend who purchased some cigarettes for a work colleague started to wonder what might happen to this data – was the record of the specific transaction linked to her passport? could that have an effect on her purchasing health insurance in the future? Turkey’s record on human rights wasn’t lost on us either….

What do you experts advise in such circumstances? Should we have denied ourselves those last minute purchases of apple tea and Marlboro lights?

[BTW I think the WIBBI on the coke is obvious…]