Right to privacy broken by a quarter of UK's public databases, says report

Pretty strong stuff but perhaps the first honest appraisal of our major databases. We are at the adolescence stage of our understanding of mass data storage and must maintain vigilance as we learn this process. If you loose your house keys you can always change your door lock. If we loose all our personal information (NI numbers, passport numbers, bank details, date of birth, place of birth, DNA, medical history, children's school info, criminal history etc) it is a bit harder to 'just fit a new lock'.

A quarter of all the largest public-sector database projects, including the ID cards register, are fundamentally flawed and clearly breach Europeandata protection and rights laws, according to a report published today.

Claiming to be the most comprehensive map so far of Britain's "database state", the report says that 11 of the 46 biggest schemes, including the national DNA database and the Contactpoint index of all children in England, should be given a "red light" and immediately scrapped or redesigned. more...