• Home
• Subjects
• Blog Roll
• Blindside
• Kable
• Advanced Search

• 

04 Jan 2008

Justice Committee, Info Commissioner, Dr Walport, and CST try to bring sanity to the nitwittery

The House of Commons Justice committee has published a protection of public data report. As PA puts it

Officials in the public and private sectors should face criminal charges if they put people’s data security at risk through carelessness or impropriety, an influential group of MPs has said.

Managers should also be obliged to report losses of data and other breaches to the Government’s information watchdog...The MPs warned that the massive HMRC breach was not an “isolated example”, and there was evidence of a “widespread problem within Government relating to establishing systems for data protection and operating them adequately"..."There is currently no criminal offence of a data controller (such as a private business or a Government department) intentionally or recklessly disclosing personal information,” the MPs wrote..."Furthermore, the current criminal offences only cover individuals and non-Governmental bodies or organisations; Government departments or agencies cannot be held criminally responsible for data protection breaches.”

It came out on a quiet news dayso they got their headlines. But the report also reminds us of some earlier work that I had missd or forgotten. This includes the CST report Better use of personal information: opportunities and risks (2005) which was co-authored by Dr Mark Walport who is now workig with the Information Commissioner on the PM’s review of data protection. About Transformational government the 2005 CST report said

Concerns about invasion of privacy, accountability and government’s ability to deliver the benefits of data-sharing need to be at the heart of an open dialogue. The key here is trust.  Without an open dialogue on all the implications of better linkages between, and access to, personal datasets, there is a risk that the public will be mistrustful of government’s actions.  At the same time, there is a great risk that technology will drive these developments forward in an uncontrolled way. It is essential to do this properly, with appropriate controls, rather than allow the changes solely to be driven by technology. Through extensive engagement with the public and civil society groups, government needs to put regulatory and governance frameworks in place that minimise and manage the risks, while ensuring that the benefits are delivered. Without this intervention, the risks will not be controlled but nor will the potential benefits be realised.

• Posted by William Heath on 04/01/08 at 2:46pm
• Categories · "What do we want?" · Foundation of Trust · Data nitwittery
• Comments (0)  Permalink

Ideal Government

Let's say what we want from e-enabled government. Let's observe government first-hand. Let's say "Wouldn't It Be Better If" (WIBBI). Become an ethnographer of bureaucracy today! It beats getting frustrated with public services.

Categories

• "What do we want?"
  • Wibbipedia/MindtheGap
  • Design: Co-creation
    • Online Maps
  • Design: user-oriented
  • Foundation of Trust
    • Identity
    • Data nitwittery
  • Save Time and Money
• Greener government IT
• Pertinent Art
• Power of Information
• Political engagement
• "Transformational Government"
• Government Procurement
• Across the Board
• Ideal Goverment - project

Comment

Anyone is free to comment. Or mail with an article if you want to be an author. I'll post it up and send you a password. This whole thing is supported by Kable.

Authors

Sign up for new articles

Copyright

Designed by...

Statistics

This page has been viewed 1372106 times

Entries: 1622 | Comments: 2660 | Trackbacks: 206
Most Recent Entry: 10/06/2008 10:46 am
Most Recent Comment: 10/06/2008 12:08 pm

Members: 185 | Logged in: 0 | Guests: 51
Most recent visitor: 10/06/2008 03:16 pm
Most visitors ever: 443 on 10/12/2005 02:21 pm