I read an article a while ago now and meant to do a blog straight away and alas the last day here I am! So I read an article in the guardian about how the government intends to bring in a National Health Service database of all our medical history. It is claimed that of course only people with special granted permission will have access but I’m still pretty dubious. Generally our medical records are only seen by those in our local doctors surgeries but if this data bade comes in private medical information could be potentially accessed by complete strangers at the other end of the country. There are now restrictions put in place to prevent people accessing our say police records or financial records. But I have heard of people who have found ways around these systems and accessed peoples private information with out there permission. Its fairly likely that some one somewhere will be able to work out how to get around the security. Is means that people could use our personal information to their advantage or even maybe against us? In the article Harry Cayton though generally for the idea of a data base admits that he is ‘as anxious as anyone that intimate medical information should not appear in the news of the world.’ Demonstrating that there are serious doubts. Along with the idea of a national database it would appear that I.D cards are inevitable. The I.D cards will be biometric which means that for identification or verification of some ones identity on the basis of physiological or behavioural characteristics. On each individuals card it will contain 52 pieces of personal information. Not only does this mean that we will have to carry around a significant amount of information around with us but we also have to pay almost £100 for the privilege. I think there it is likely that there will be a massive increase in identity theft, especially when the prototypes that are around for the I.D cards have already been hacked in to. It fills me with little confidence about how secure my private information is. Im not sure that there is actually a need for the depth of the identity cards in terms of how much will be stored upon the cards. Its not as if the state don’t already have a fairly good idea exactly what we are up to. For example if we book plane tickets to America and pay by credit card the authorities do a credit check to examine what we have been buying. Also if we give an email address they access our email accounts to find out what we have been sending. In the news today it has also been reported that from summer when British travellers enter America all ten of their finger prints will be taken and stored by intelligence services such as the F.BI along side the finger prints of criminals. And there will be no restrictions on international use. . For me this is just infringing upon the human rights of those of us who are innocent. I know that with the terrorist threat there is bound to be tighter security, but I’m just not sure that id cards and such like are the way forwards. It seems as if we have no control or right over what is essentially our own information. I just don’t know where this is going to stop. I also wonder how much longer it is before we become a literal big brother state and what Orwell predicted will become a reality. If only I had the answers and I would imagine it’s a case of only time that will tell.
