Selling Personal Data

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Big Brother Watch Posted in Data Protection, Home, Online privacy | 5 Comments

According to the ICO yesterday, a former gambling industry worker has plead guilty to committing three offences under section 55 of the Data Protection Act. For these offences, Marc Ben-Ezra was handed a three year conditional discharge and £1,700 fine in addition to just over £800 pounds in court fees. This is his penance for selling more than 65,000 individuals’ personal data for a profit of around £25,000.

This case is a particularly blaring example of where the laws surrounding data protection are lacking. Not only was Mr Ben-Ezra able to obtain and remove personal data from his place of work, but he was able to make a profit from doing so-even after his sentence for pleading guilty was handed down. Read more

Holding the Coalition to account on the DNA Database

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in DNA database, Protection of Freedoms Bill | 4 Comments

Writing on the Huffington Post, I argue that the Coalition is not being properly held to account for it’s decision to abandon the committment in the Coalition Agreement to implement the Scottish model for the retention of biometric material.

“As the Bill currently stands, there is a real risk of back-door indefinite retention of innocent people’s DNA material – without judicial oversight – through the broad exemptions that have been included. It does not offer the same protections as the Scottish system.

Before the election, then Shadow Home Office minister James Brokenshire said the government “has been obsessed with growing the DNA database for the sake of it regardless of guilt or innocence.”

He asked “just how many more DNA profiles of the innocent have to be added before the Government is prepared to act?”

I am sure several Peers will be keen to ask the Government the same question.”

You can read the full article here .

Big Brother babysitting is no substitute for parenting

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in Civil Liberties, Internet freedom, Online privacy, Social Networking, Web blocking | Leave a comment

Last week, I was sent an article which suggested that the US’s Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) operations (or vehicle searches) was as effective a response to terrorism as flying billion-dollar B-2 stealth bombers above shopping malls were in eliminating bear attacks. I commented how in Britain, we were slightly more measured in our response to problems.

And then I heard about Lewisham East Labour MP Heidi Alexander’s Private Members Bill.

I don’t recall the exact moment when the vogue solution to social problems became censoring the internet. Or when it became acceptable for members of the British political establishment to call for technology to replace parenting. But clearly, there is a growing body of opinion that sees Big Brother as the new babysitter of choice.

More CCTV for London does not make us safer

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in CCTV, Civil Liberties, Privacy, Surveillance | Leave a comment

London, one of the world’s most surveyed cities, is set to see another wave of CCTV cameras be installed.

Despite the Metropolitan Police acknowledging that fewer than one crime is solved by every 1,000 closed circuit television cameras, Transport for London is to spend up to £60m on even more CCTV for the capital. In one London borough, Havering, an investigation found how in an entire year CCTV was used just three times by police as evidence – despite 400 crimes a year taking place on local buses.

CCTV is an indiscriminate intrusion on the privacy of innocent people – and despite the high cost to our privacy, it does little to make us safer.

The London riots ended once and for all the myth that CCTV prevents crime. The general public are far more concerned about how the police prevent crime and protect our safety, and wasteful surveillance is a drain on the resources that could be deployed on the streets. More surveillance is not a substitute for proper policing.

The end of freedom online as we know it?

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in Civil Liberties, Internet freedom, Online privacy, Web blocking | 1 Comment

Writing on The Commentator, I highlight the links between a recent court case where BT was ordered to block a file sharing website with the growing calls for wider censorship of the internet.

“As the legal question of protecting intellectual property and enforcing the criminal law becomes burred with the moral questions posed by the likes of Claire Perry, the future of British access – private access – to a free internet becomes ever less certain.

This week, the great and the good of the internet world gathered in London to discuss the impending doom that an explosion in cybercrime entails. Yet perhaps the greatest threat lies from within, and a perfect storm of security, child protection and sexualisation and copyright enforcement we may be sleepwalking into the end of freedom online as we know it.”

Virus to Viral in the NHS

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Andrew McGrath Posted in Data Protection, Privacy | Leave a comment

How would you feel becoming an instant meme? You may have gone into hospital expecting to be cured of that nasty virus. You certainly wouldn’t expect the NHS to make you go viral. Unfortunately, the risk of this happening was highlighted in Big Brother Watch’s latest report on NHS Data Protection Breaches.

The NHS does an excellent job delivering health care every day. However, it only takes a few bad apples to make the whole institution lose the faith of countless patients expecting a basic level of confidentiality. In light of recent research released today by Big Brother Watch, I’m starting to wonder about the culture of data protection in our health service. After all, what kind of government run institution allows employees who lose USB sticks or post personal information to the wrong person?

I’m lucky enough never to have suffered from a serious illness. But I have been in and out of hospital for various ailments over the years and I am deeply uncomfortable with the thought of strangers finding the patient records of my medical care. I suppose some of those visits might be seen as fairly harmless and even amusing. But what if my employer found out? Or what if someone posted the contents of my records online for a cheap laugh?

Are the Metropolitan Police listening in to your calls?

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in Privacy, Surveillance, Technology | 1 Comment

Today’s report in the Guardian about the Metropolitan police’s mobile phone surveillance technology is a chilling reminder of the way the law follows, rather than leads technology use.

As I say in the piece, the technology could give police the ability to conduct “blanket and indiscriminate” monitoring. In particular, whether the use of a ‘spoof’ mobile phone network by the police counts as one act of surveillance, and therefore requires only one legal authorisation, or whether (as we would argue) there should be an authorisation for each individual phone intercepted - in the same way as other surveillance activity is regulated.

Critical questions of due process, legality and privacy are raised by this kind of technology and it is essential the police do not simply stonewall on the grounds of security.

Snooping on the personal communications of thousands of people in the hope of discovering one potential offender is a grossly disproportionate response and once again highlights how technology can become a lazy option for police officers.

The news follows a separate investigation by the Telegraph, who found the Met have spent millions on surveillance aircraft capable of similar interception and surveillance.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) makes clear in s 8(1) that:

(1)An interception warrant must name or describe either—

(a)one person as the interception subject; or

(b)a single set of premises as the premises in relation to which the interception to which the warrant relates is to take place.

It is therefore doubtful that such an investigation could be legally authorised under this legislation, as even a creative lawyer would struggle to argue a group of people in a 10km radius constitutes ‘one person’ or a ‘single set of premises’.
Big Brother Watch will continue to investigate where this technology has been deployed, and to campaign for proper judicial oversight of any use in future.

NHS patient confidentiality breached 5 times every week

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in Data Protection, Featured, Home, Research and reports, Social Networking | 11 Comments

A new Big Brother Watch report reveals how medical information is lost, shared on Facebook and how NHS staff look at each other’s medical records

According to Freedom of Information Act requests, between July 2008 and July 2011 there were at least 806 separate incidents where patient medical records were compromised, highlighted a shocking number of incidents in the NHS where patient medical records were accessed inappropriately.

This included:

23 incidents of patient information being posted on social networking sites
91 incidents of NHS staff looking up details of colleagues
24 NHS Trusts saw confidential information stolen, lost or left behind by staff
44 NHS trusts failed to respond to the Freedom of Information request and 55 Trusts refused to release all or some if the information requested.

Despite these breaches of Data Protection policy, just 102 cases resulted in dismissal of staff.

You can download the report here.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “This research highlights how the NHS is simply not doing enough to ensure confidential patient information is protected.

“The information held in medical records is of huge personal significance and for details to be disclosed, maliciously accessed or lost and these cases represents serious infringements on patient privacy.

Parliament joins calls for custodial sentences in serious data protection breaches

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in Data Protection | Leave a comment

Last month, Big Brother Watch called for judges to have the option of custodial sentences for the most serious breaches of the Data Protection Act.

Today the Justice Select Committee has added its voice to calls for this power to be made available to judges.

It’s report, Referral Fees and the theft of personal data, outlines the inadequacy of fines as a deterrent for breaches, and urges the Government to implement the custodial sentencing provisions passed in 2008′s Criminal Justice and Immigration Act without delay.

The comittee also highlighted how some misuses of data by businesses may be going undiscovered because the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) does not have the power to force private-sector organisations to undergo an audit.

Big Brother Watch welcomes the report and fully supports the Committee’s view on custodial sentencing – now the Government should act.

Company selling CCTV says CCTV is good : shock claim!

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Nick Pickles Posted in CCTV, Riots | 1 Comment

A survey published today by “advanced surveillance solutions” company Synetic has claimed that following this summer’s riots, public attitudes towards CCTV have warmed and people want to see more cameras on the streets.

This is hardly surprising. As the police this week acknowledged, their response to the riots was fundamentally flawed by a lack of officers. As a result, lawlessness was allowed to spread and a huge amount of criminality and destruction was inflicted on the streets of London, Birmingham and Manchester. And as a result, crimes are going unsolved as officers sift through an estimated 120,000 hours of footage.

One of the headline findings highlights the real motive behind the survey: seven in 10 would be worried if their local council reduced CCTV coverage.

No consideration of what else the resources could be better spent on. No consideration if they actually solved crime. No consideration of privacy. Just don’t spend less on CCTV.

Britain has one per cent of the world’s population but around 20 per cent of its CCTV cameras – roughly one for every 14 people. After the riots, CCTV images have been useful in bringing some of the rioters to justice. However, the most hardcore elements took steps to mitigate against the risk of identification, using high-tech techniques like hoods and scarves. Furthermore, some images (as is often the case) were of insufficient quality to identify suspects, and within the first 24 hours the photograph of an innocent shop owner protecting his business had been posted for thousands of people to see online – with him accused of rioting.

The riots finally laid bare the myth that CCTV deters crime. As the Met’s own figures show, for every 1,000 cameras less than 1 crime is solved. And to solve that crime has cost in the order of £20,000 for surveillance equipment. Surveys like this are a great way for a PR to get their client coverage without ever engaging on the substantive issues. You write the answers, then set the questions.

Big Brother Watch will keep on exposing CCTV for the intrusive, indiscriminate and inefficient tool that it is. But we’ll use facts, not marketing bumph, to make our case.

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