Are A Quarter Of The UK Government's Databases Illegal?

from the that's-how-it-works dept

Governments keep trying to build bigger and bigger databases -- and almost every such database eventually gets abused in ways that harm privacy rights. One of the most aggressive governments in building such databases has been the UK -- and a new study of such databases has found that approximately a quarter of the UK government's databases are illegal in that they don't do nearly enough to protect individual's privacy and civil rights. Of course, these sorts of things don't get any attention until it's too late -- and there's a big enough abuse or leak to really lead to public attention.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: database, privacy, uk


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Thomas Whitney, 27 Mar 2009 @ 10:03am

    If you would like more education on the topic of digital security relating to this story check out: http://www.justaskgemalto.com

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2009 @ 12:06pm

    I'm glad I live in the U.S., where our government understands and respects people's privacy.... Oh wait...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Easily Amused, 27 Mar 2009 @ 6:08pm

    Re:

    at least try to say something relevant to the post or GTFO with your spam

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.