Privacy International has slammed the government's proposed new
data sharing law, which it says will create open season on
citizens' private data.
When introducing the law, the government said it would make it
easier for government departments to share information, mainly for
the benefit of citizens receiving government benefits and
services.
It would also make it easier to fight crime, said the
government. Privacy International though says the proposed law
would make data given to private companies less secure and ride
roughshod over the controls put in place by the UK Information
Commissioner.
The organisation said, "Of the hundreds of issues engaged each
year by Privacy International, a small handful stand out because of
the fundamental risk they pose to the foundations of privacy
protection.
"The UK government's proposal to legislate, in its 'Coroners and
Justice Bill', for wide-scale sharing of personal data is one such
instance, and internationally is the first occasion in recent
months that we have seen an example of risk at such a fundamental
level."
It said, "The mass exchange of personal information has the
potential to deliver some benefit however, it also presents vast
risks associated with governance, privacy, security and human
autonomy. In the rush to institute data sharing, these aspects have
largely been ignored."
Privacy International has published
a report on the threats it says the bill poses to privacy.
According to Privacy International, the problems with this law
are:
- It is based on an illegitimate consultation process over a
ten-year period, created to justify whatever the government drafted
into law. Even the Information Commissioner's Office has been
compromised.
- Avoids parliamentary scrutiny by pushing orders through
secondary legislation.
- Consists of meaningless protections and oversight, where the
ICO may provide comments to parliament in a process where
parliament is not permitted to amend the order.