A British campaign group claims almost 25 percent of Government-run databases breach data protection and human rights laws. The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust says the offending databases must be scrapped or significantly redesigned to protect the public.

The group looked at 46 government databases and gave them a traffic-light ranking for how well they complied with the law. Just six earned green rankings, meaning there were few problems, will 29 were rated amber, meaning there were significant problems and the database needs an independent assessment.

Another 11 sites got a red rating, meaning “The collection and sharing of sensitive personal data may be  disproportionate, or done without our consent, or without a proper legal basis; or there may be other major privacy or operational problems. ”

These included a national DNA database with data on more than four million people who’ve been questioned by the police, of whom around 500,000 were released without any charge or caution but have not had their details removed. Another, ONSET, apparently gathers details on children from multiple sources to predict which are the most likely to commit crimes.

The Trust says government should follow several guidelines to stay within the law:

• Personal details should usually only be gathered with consent on an opt-in basis.
• Sensitive data should only be shared where strictly necessary and data should generally not be stored on a national database.
• Individuals should not have to pay the legal costs of challenging government behaviour on data handling.
• People should normally have a right to access government services anonymously.

The report also argues that many databases have got out of hand because government saw them as an IT project, rather than a task which happened to need IT support. It urges that “computer companies must never again drive policy.”

According to Reuters, one government department “said the report had no real evidence to base its assessment about the impact on people’s privacy.”

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 am under Legal, Politics.

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