This week Norfolk and Suffolk constabularies confessed that, replying to a freedom of information request, they had managed to release the personal details of 1,200 victims and witnesses of domestic abuse. The information was not readily visible but could be accessed by those with technical skills.
The protection afforded by ID cards is only as good as the security of the system
This came just a week after the Police Service of Northern Ireland admitted that it had similarly released, again in response to an FOI request, the names and ranks of its officers, along with the offices in which they were based.
It is hard to think of a more damaging leak of private data. For years during the Troubles police officers in Ulster were being picked off, sometimes shot on their doorsteps. It is vital, if we want police officers to risk their own safety in order to fight crime and terrorism, that they are afforded basic protection of their personal data.
Yet the police and other agencies of the state have a troubling habit of letting sensitive information slip. Earlier this month it was revealed that a cyber attack on the Electoral Commission had exposed the names and addresses of the entire UK electorate.
Yet the threat of data leakage or theft doesn’t seem to enter into the equation when the government decides to collect ever more data from us. Just look at the questions included on the last census – on our religion, sexuality, ethnicity and health – and ask yourself if you would be happy for that information to be available to all and sundry.
The government may have benign reasons for asking us for this information – which it does under pain of stiff fines for those who refuse – but anyone who is out to steal data may have very different intentions.
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