In a message dated 04/10/2000 12:19:18 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
<< Has anyone else been asked to comment on the paper issued by CVCP 1/00/148
concerning the 'Safeguarding social security: getting the information we
need' paper from Social Security? This suggests that legislation may be
introduced
to compel colleges and universities to provide Social Security with a list
of students attending so that they can check this against their claimants
database? Although a section included states that the rights of the
individual will be protected under the Human Rights Act and the Data
Protection Act, the assurance only runs to five lines and states that the
public has a right to expect safeguards under these Acts and that they
recognise that they will have obligations under law regarding the processing
of the data. >>
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This sounds very similar to the Audit Commission Act where the AC demand
databases from local authorities so the auditors can do fishing trips -
matching payroll data with housing benefits data, benefits data with grants
information, payroll to payroll across many councils, and so on.
All the councils of the country give their databases (payroll, benefits,
grants, and now housing tenancy information) at this time of the year and the
AC use Hunter or something similar to match names, addresses, NI numbers, etc
to find if any same or similar details appear on different databases.
Soundalike techniques are also used so that "Buckland" and "Buckley" may come
up as a match.
Councils receive a printout and/or datafile on floppy disk (usually not
encrypted and often sent through the post) of the matches and they have to
investigate the reasons for the match in each case. The data they receive
will be a mix of their own data and information from the other council where
a match is found.
In general, as the whole database is given to the AC, safe house addresses
and other sensitive data are included, and can to other councils if (for
example) a battered wife's details are matched with her husband's details in
another area.
Some councils allow legitimate concerns to be aired but many have not yet
told their staff, grants claimants and tenants that their details will be
used in this way.
If the law is changed to compel universities to disclose to the DSS I think
there should be something in it to require notification to students of the
purpose and giving them an opportunity to object where serious harm could
result. These cases could then be investigated in a more sensitive manner.
Whatever next? Inland Revenue records matched against supermarket loyalty
data?
I'm fairly sure there's something in the Human Rights Act about
proportionality (sledgehammer to crack a nut).
Ian Buckland
MD
Keep IT Legal Ltd
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