Tory surveillance backlash: Worthy, but is it workable?
Big stick needed to poke out Big Brother's eye
What you need to know about cloud backup
Conservative proposals to roll back the surveillance state may score an A for effort – but maybe only a B for practicality.
Speaking today on the launch of Reversing the rise of the surveillance state, Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve MP condemned Labour's approach to databases and surveillance as "intrusive, ineffectual and enormously expensive".
The measures that they advocate - such as CCTV, ID cards and mass surveillance – are not just costly, at a time when austerity is the order of the day: they also have little to show in terms of personal security. Worse, in cases such as that of the Vetting and Barring Database, we are generating a false sense of security that will reduce the likelihood of citizens giving their time to the state – while doing little to achieve its supposed aim of protecting children.
Today’s launch set out five principles that the Conservative party intend to apply in government, as well as 11 specific proposals - or 12, if their response to the Vetting and Barring Database is now to be included.
The principles are:
- Fewer giant central government databases
- Fewer personal details held centrally, and those that are held only for specific purposes, for a limited period of time
- Individual control of when and how personal data is controlled
- Greater checks on data sharing between government departments, quangos and local councils
- Stronger duties on government to keep personal info safe
Proposals which the Conservative Party is now clearly signed up to include:
- Scrapping the National Identity Register and ContactPoint Database
- Restricting and restraining local council access to personal communications data
- Strengthening the audit powers and independence of the Information Commissioner
At a personal level, Dominic Grieve said: "These measures reflect the state of current finances, but they are not financially driven. I am personally concerned by the erosion of liberty and the changing relationship between citizen and state, the undermining of government by consent, and the destruction of individual involvement, which in the end is likely to involve placing a far greater burden on the state."
While the above will be music to the ears of many Reg readers, the devil, as always, is in the detail, and it is here that the Conservatives may fall down.
We asked whether the issue really was the propagation of an ID scheme, or whether this was just the inevitable result of legislation – such as the Licensing Act 2003 - that placed ever greater responsibilities on individual retailers, and making the demand for verifiable identity almost inevitable. Grieve recognised the issue, and observed that we could not turn the clock back.
There were greater needs for personal ID. However, what he was fighting was “the politician’s perception of pressure from the world to absolve them from blame”. In other words, schemes that were about back-covering, rather than practical solutions to real issues.
Another question related to the unholy influence of civil servants and Eurocrats. Many of the initiatives now up for review appeared to originate inside the Civil Service, rather than with government: would the Tories be any better at resisting such pressure? Grieve expressed the hope that they would.
The jury is out. There is not much that is new in today’s proposals, but they usefully bring together a number of things already stated by the Conservatives, and provides a single policy framework in which to situate them. Will they stick to their guns once in government? We may soon find out. ®
COMMENTS
Could And Should Have Done Better
Mr Grieve has failed to realise that the ICO is simply unfit for purpose and needs to be completely overhauled, re-educated about the law and given a new set of balls before any changes to its remit can even be considered.
I see nothing in these proposals or the follow up e-mail from his office which would have prevented the Phorm issue happening.
Sorry Mr Grieve, you could and should have done better. Take this work back and try again.
Re ... Less IT is more .. By Frank Gerlach Posted Friday 18th September 2009 00:21 GMT
Frank,
Blaming the computer for the follies of Man is a cop out. The problem sits at its GUI/keyboard inputting Instruction.
As for AI-like crap, it is always wise and best not to misunderestimate what you may not know, for IT provides a very seductive entanglement with addictive strings which explore the very Essence of Spiritual Being in Global Operating Devices. Vorsprung durch AITechnIQ?
<<<[quote]But you spectacularly failed to answer my question.
Do you agree that belief and ideas are only the building blocks of knowledge?[/quote]
Yes, of course. They would be as the bricks and mortar of a knowledge house. However, that just leaves them as materials and plant on the building site with nothing built. Belief in ideas and/or Ideas you can believe in would then be required for the Master Builders.....Masons.
"Facts rely on evidence. .... Only when you have evidence to support it, can you say you have a house." ...... And when the available evidence doesn't support the facts, sandywinder, and you have built your mansion upon such facts, is the building real, or a ghostly facade which will disappear/crash to the ground?
And you are cordially invited to unambiguously answer those two questions, with a revealing No and/or Yes.
On a very general note/personal opinion about Man, and particularly and specifically about the Male of the species, is there a more arrogant and ignorant and destructive an animal on Planet Earth?
Is that because of a Lack of Intelligence and/or a Lack of Ideas and/or a Lack of Belief in what one can do whenever one can do pretty much anything whenever one puts one's mInd to it with others of a similar mindset?
"On the other hand I AM a thinker, so I will answer yours." ..... Too many thinkers, who would profess to be thinkers, do not think nearly deep or far enough to be labelling themselves as thinkers ...... for they would only be tinkerers really. >>> ..... which is posted in another thread weaving ITs Magic.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
