I've just been having a look at proposals for the NHS wide tracing
service. This will enable large numbers of people in the NHS to access
the first high-quality up-to-date database of all adults and children
in Britain. The public consultation period ends on 30/6 (Tuesday).
My principal concern is that information made available to hundreds of
thousands of people simply cannot be kept private. If the experience
of criminal records and vehicle registration is anything to go by,
corrupt insiders will soon make the service available to private eyes,
debt collectors, stalkers, organised crime, foreign intelligence
agencies ... the whole prospect is frightening.
>From time to time, arguments have been made for and against having a
national population register. So far, the noes have had it. If the
ayes were to prevail, the sensible place to put the register would be
in the passport office where at least it would be under some control.
Putting it in the health service will not only give far too many
people access. It will also pose serious risks to the honour and
interests of the medical profession. The scope for the system to be
abused is wide, the likelihood of public outrage is high, and doctors
risk being seen as having been co-opted into providing the
infrastructure for a police state.
I have penned a short note on the service and put it up on my home
page at <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/caldicott/caldicott.html>.
Ross Anderson
PS: If you don't have a copy of the document, it's the paper on
Caldicott implementation, available from Raj Kaur, CA-QC(CI), NHS
Executive, Room 3E58, Quarry House, Leeds LS2 7UE. Tel: 0113 2546093.
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