Do you know what they know about you?

[Sash]

As you probably know two computer discs holding the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under 16 have gone missing. The scandal of the 25 million missing records has highlighted the vulnerability of data.

It is easy to develop a sense of creeping paranoia when you begin to contemplate just how many companies, government departments and other organisations know your personal data.


MISSING DATA INCLUDES
Child Benefit form, BBC
National insurance number
Name, address and birth date
Partner's details
Names, sex and age of children
Bank/savings account details


"The average economically active individual in the developed world is on about 700 databases," said Niamh Gallagher, a researcher at think tank Demos who has spent six months researching the spread of personal data.

She said it would be naive to think that an encounter with one organisation means one isolated database is queried. Typically data is gathered from many sources before a decision is reached.

For instance the USVISIT border system, which is consulted when Britons cross from the UK to the US, mines about 30 separate databases as it checks identities.

Ms Gallagher and colleague Peter Bradwell will release their report in early December.

"Pretty much every organisation you engage with day-to-day - from clicking your Oyster card to ordering your take away - means sharing personal information."

That sharing of data, she said, has become entwined with modern life and it was a mistake to think that sharing information so often only has a downside.

"It's much harder to live your life without sharing information than it is by sharing," she said.

Anyone that tries to stop their personal data leaking away often find they are denied benefits enjoyed by those that are happier to share.

For instance, paying cash for everything will keep your name off credit checking databases. However, without the re-assurance of that check banks and credit card companies may refuse to issue a loan or mortgage.

And there are a lot of people within companies, government and other organisations that are allowed to use data that can be used to identify you.

According to the 2006/7 annual report from the Information Commissioner there are more than 287,000 data controllers in the UK who have a responsibility for making sure that personal data is used correctly.

Personal data in this sense is information that can be used to identify an individual.

Many of those data controllers will oversee many more who actually do the job of maintaining and expanding the databases holding the data.

And it does not stop there. The web is helping that data take wing and travel farther than ever before.

Hi-tech firm Garlik, which helps people gain some control over the use of personal data, estimates that personal details about average Briton can be found in more than 1,000 places on the web.

What few people realise, said Ms Gallagher, was that handing over data to one organisation can mean that it reaches many others and becomes an entry on the database they maintain.

"There is no awareness of what happens to that data when you give it away," said Ms Gallagher.

"It is not so much the organisations with which you willingly share data," she said, "it is where it goes after that."

Many organisations that collect data, such as credit checking agencies, were under commercial pressure to widen the scope of what they collect, said Ms Gallagher.

No longer are firms just interested in the basic facts about you - now what matters as much as what type of credit card you own is when you go shopping, which stores you visit and what you buy.

That pattern holds as much information as the raw facts about you - it helps companies decide which socio-economic bracket to put you and how to go about tailoring marketing to fit you and your lifestyle.

Surveillance and the collection of data about people has become so pervasive that it has spawned a dedicated research organisation - the Surveillance Studies Network.

Dr Kirstie Ball, a senior lecturer at the Open University, said that although many social scientists been studied the subject for years the pervasiveness of that scrutiny was prompting an upsurge of interest.

"That personal data held by every organisation you interact with runs the parameters of your existence, your consumption, your entitlements," she said.


"We're all interested in the collection and application of personal data and its consequences for individual rights and social science concepts such as trust and discrimination," said Dr Ball.

"It merits study and understanding because its consequences can be tangible," she said.

For instance, she said, an employee ticking the wrong box when they enter your data into a database could mean a person ends up labelled as a former criminal or credit liability.

It is possible to ask to see the data that companies and organisations hold about you, but a very small number of people take up this opportunity to vet what is known about them. Making sure all of it is accurate would be a mammoth task.

For Ms Gallagher at Demos beefing up the power of the Information Commissioner to enforce the Data Protection Act would help redress some of the imbalance between the data companies hold about us.

"Organisations and companies should be responding to the way we live," she said.

Only by using those powers will the creeping spread of that data be held stemmed.

"You are not going to get people complying with data protection on the basis of good will," she said. "Data is just too valuable."

# Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs has set up a Child Benefit Helpline on 0845 302 1444 for customers who want more details.

Source


Kind of creepy really. I like to keep my details to myself regarding personal things so we do the normal prevent of spam mail and such. Our phone is exdirectory which makes no difference, we still get cold callers and these stupid recorded ones. We get loads of junk mail and even if you tick the box on forms asking to not be contacted, likelyhood is you will be contacted. I understand the need for companies to have financial information for mortgages, loans and such, but it doesn't mean I like the fact that somebody can access my details, especially regarding my children, and potentially change that information or pass it onto someone I would never consider giving that information to.

What ever happened to the data protection act? or has that just been forgotten....

[Puratech]

Its not really very scarey, even if youve got stuff to hide it doesnt really make any difference and most of us havent ^^

Being ex-directory doesnt stop unwanted phonecalls, it does little more than remove you from the phonebook now. You need to sign up to some thing that makes it illegal for people to make unsolicited phone calls to you, its been listed on TF several times and it does work. Ive not had a single sales call in around 3 years since i signed up.

Does it really matter that tescos can target their special offers to you, because they know you have a cat and a car, from your purchases in the store? Who cares that all your purchases are listed on there, if you really care then dont use a clubcard, pay in cash.


The fact that retarded idiots think its okay to send uk databases unencrypted via a mail courier is pretty retarded doesnt really make it any worse for them to have that information. Theres a million better ways they could have done that, without a huge investment in cash. The problem there is the government being irresponsible, not a problem with collection of data imo.

[teflon]

I heard those CD's that got stolen had the bank account details of all the families on child benefit. Obviously these aren't very rich families, but multiplied by the 25 million people affected, then those disks are probably the most valuable items in Britain. per square metre or something.

At least it means we won't have to get ID cards that the fascists want.

I bet my details aren't on 700 databases. Only about 4 people know my real name, I am pretty cagey about entering my details anywhere so I have several 'cover' ID's that are close to real which I use to register for things.
Enemy of the State.

[draganess]

Every body in the country whether rich of skint is entitled to child benefit. So its not just skint peoples details they have its every ones who has a child.

[kevin]

thats one of the dis/adv of living on the grid, anyone connected to it can find anyone else connected.
Writing on forums, or making profiles on sites like bebo are probably one of the worst things you can do. Anyone wishing to find you can find selected details about you through such interfaces, then use that to find more information through the many national databases out there.

[Detomah]

If anyone thinks they are living relatively under the radar, or managing to avoid being on all these databases and the likes, sign up for a site like creditexpert and get a current credit scoring for yourself done, that will scare you, trust me.

I had one done a while back when I was trying to sell the house and we were looking at our options and the details these credit reports have about you are absolutely astounding. Taking into account, that as an adult, I lived out of this country for 3 years, was in the forces for 3 years, lived in Scotland for 3 years, lived in Norfolk for 3 years and have pretty much not lived in any particular house for longer than 2 years since and that for a lot of that time I was not on any council register, was immune from paying various taxes and the likes and was basically completely off the radar. Yet looking at that credit scoring from creditexpert and the detail it covered every single financial aspect of my adult life and every single place I have lived in the last 20 years, it scared the living shit out of me.

If you think for one that you can escape debt by changing your name, using a slightly mispelled name or by reverting back to your divorced parents maiden name or anything like that, i'd seriously say look at your credit history, because these companies have access to details about you that you don't even know yourself.

Regarding these 25 million families details that have gone walkies. Personally i'd say there is probably likely to be very little anyone can do with them without leading the security forces directly to them and i'd say once they find out who has stolen them, that person is likely to turn up dead in the River Tyne after having an accident.

[teflon]

Originally Posted by Detomah

If you think for one that you can escape debt by changing your name, using a slightly mispelled name or by reverting back to your divorced parents maiden name or anything like that, i'd seriously say look at your credit history, because these companies have access to details about you that you don't even know yourself.

You're probably right. I do all those things you mentioned but not to escape debt or anything, just on the internet really when I register for things. Whenever you change your passport and driving license and bank details that's it everywhere.
I agree it is scary the amount of info that private companies have access to, the government should be trying to limit that rather than amass ever more databases which can easily be hacked, looked at by an unscrupulous person or STOLEN IN THE MAIL.
Draganess said it is everyone who has young kids who are on those stolen disks. If that's true then it has to be the biggest fuck-up in modern government. It gives me a sore head just thinking about it.