
The Rowntree Trust Report on the Database State, available
here, takes the debate on the database state to a new stage. While it is short on legal and political analysis, it does make a comprehensive listing of the number of large databases currently run by the Government and Public authorities. The report lists 46 major databases, and concludes that only 6 have a proper legal basis and are necessary and proportionate. Around 12 are taken to be illegal in the sense of breaching human rights or data protection law; the 46 databases are assessed according to a traffic light system, and this assessment and the other headline conclusions of the Report are set out in the useful Executive Summary.
The Report was made by the Foundation for Information Policy Research, and the authors include Ross Anderson and William Heath. The increasingly beleaguered Minister …
Continue Reading ››