September 1, 2008

Home Office condemned for losing data mash-up while millions of banks details sold for £35

The recent Home Office data loss should be put into the perspective of the previously unpublicised loss of a million bank records and the consultation on implementation of the EU Data Retention Directive, plans to collate that which is retained in a central database, the recommendations of papers like "The power of information" and the services already available from Google, let alone those being proposed by Garlik  Phorm and others.

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Posted by Philip Virgo on September 1, 2008 8:24 PM |
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August 27, 2008

A long-overdue consultation on the great on-line rip-off

The importance of the Ofcom review on Quality of Service information cannot be under-estimated. 35 years ago, when I had responsibility for the NCC Microsystems Centre - running the flagship awareness prgramme of the day. We tried to intoduce the idea of assessing ease of usability, reliability and quality of service from a user perspective. We failed. So has every attempt since. Hopefully this exercise will be more successful.

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 27, 2008 10:38 AM |
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August 23, 2008

Another day, another data loss: Which culture must we change?

The recent loss of offender data shows how the cultural malaise regarding other people's data pervades the ICT profession, not just government bureaucracies. But the need is to protect people not their data. So which culture is it that we need to change?   

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 23, 2008 10:15 AM |
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August 16, 2008

Big Brother Database or Sensible Precaution

The consultation on the updating of the legislation to require "communications data" to be retained in order to aid possible investigations came shortly after the announcement of proposals to centralise the storage of such data. The result has been a predictable wave of paranoia. Still missing are the risk assessments that would inform rational debate.    

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 16, 2008 12:38 PM |
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August 12, 2008

Would you trust identity papers/card from this system?

I have received a guest blog from "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" on what happened when he recently tried to renew his passport. I have seen a similar complaints from, for example, a former midwife and child care professional wishing to help organise childrens' activities in local villages near where she has lived and worked for forty year - she has lost count of the number of crminal records bureau checks she has been asked to submit to.

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 12, 2008 10:13 AM |
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August 7, 2008

Will xxx.cym be more trusted than xxx.com?

Tom Brooks, who I have known for more years than either of us cares to remember, has contributed the following guest blog.

 

"Mr Ieuan Wyn Jones, Wales' Minister for the Economics & Transport, announced on Wednesday morning that the Welsh Assembly Government's would be seeking an internet top level domain for the Welsh linguistic and cultural community in the new round of internet expansion. "Proper Internet status for our nation will open up new marketing opportunities and help promote the Wales brand", said the Minister.

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 7, 2008 8:54 PM |
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August 2, 2008

DCMS consults on another EU attempt to outlaw the future

The consultation on the UK implementation of the Audio Visual Media Services Directive has just begun. This aims to outlaw the product placement routines that are becoming integral to be central to funding of new content, "except when these are permitted": the opposite of the tradtional anglo-saxon attitude to legislation.    

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Posted by Philip Virgo on August 2, 2008 10:06 AM |
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July 28, 2008

The transformation of government begins: burying good news instead of spinning bad

The GC Weekly  newsletter was headed "A dim way to bury good news": referring to the way that Transformational Government - our progress in 2007  had been included in the slew of reports rushed out just before the start of the recess. That set me to wondering why the publication of an account of genuine success mixed with thoughful comment and "real" news should be delayed and then "leaked" rather than launched.

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Posted by Philip Virgo on July 28, 2008 10:57 AM |
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Transforming Public Service Delivery: Let the People Speak

Yesterday I blogged on the government announcements that were "leaked" last week. Today an even more radical recommendation on how to help ensure successful transformation of the delivery of public services in the UK has a similarly low-key launch. The recommendation is for those who wish to have responsibility for delivery to work with and through the Select Committees of Parliament to provide continuity of input on "good practice": from policy formation, through pre-legislative scrutiny to performance monitoring      

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Posted by Philip Virgo on July 28, 2008 10:08 AM |
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July 25, 2008

IPR Wars - will recession concentrate the mind?

Depending on who you talk to, the government-brokered "memorandum of understanding" between the record and film industries and six leading ISPs, (under which the latter will write to those whose systems are supposedly used to exchange "illegally copied" material), is "a long overdue outbreak of common sense" or "the thin end of the wedge". Either way, the economic, not just legal, importance of the BERR consultation is profound.       

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Posted by Philip Virgo on July 25, 2008 10:36 AM |
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New Media Awards 2008

Nominated for New Statesman New Media Award

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