The other day we see reported in the press (in this case SC Magazine http://haymarket.puresendmail.com/hmiclick/4t6676cRbkg92yRmd0R8l9a2cRng1R4tbura/2/www.scmagazineuk.com/UK-Government-takes-rap-for-latest-data-blunder/article/115785/) that yet again personal data held by the UK government has leaked its way out into the public domain.

In the past we have managed to hit tax claimants, car drivers, and student doctors.  But just as we thought things were getting better they and their partners managed to hit a most unlikely and vulnerable sector of society – criminals.

It might well be jingoism to say, “Well, why should they get protection – so who cares.”  But as we know, it turns out that there are wrong convictions, and not every prisoner is a paedophile, murderer, rapist or thief.  Some are just people who couldn’t pay the mortgage. 

And would we want people to be readily exposed to blackmail because of their pasts?   Making it easier for other criminals to recruit them when they have served the punishment society exacted?  Probably not a good idea.

What it also does is reinforce genuine and growing concern that information professionals and management simply do not have any grip on protecting the privacy of information.  They may (and the Press may say they may not) have some grasp about access controls.  But there seems to be no clue about how to stop the leaking and spreading of information that has been entrusted to them to manage. 

And the biggest collectors and processors of really high value and fairly accurate personal data are - governments, whether national or local.

So the nightmare scenario is that governments give themselves the right to collect more and more personal information about people (not just their citizens), and consolidate it under the guise of (pick one or more for your own country as required) identity control, taxation, prevention of terrorism, then they are at the same time creating the opportunity for even bigger targets for hackers, and ever bigger losses of personal data.

But whilst there seems to be no effective way, if news stories are correct, of persuading government officials and the companies working for them to raise standards and take personal responsibility for losses, then you can forget having personal data.