{"id":899,"date":"2007-11-23T09:34:04","date_gmt":"2007-11-23T17:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=899"},"modified":"2007-11-23T16:49:11","modified_gmt":"2007-11-24T00:49:11","slug":"childrens-birthdates-addresses-and-names-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"Childrens’ birthdates, addresses and names revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u00a0is more context <\/a>on the HMRC identity catastrophe.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Terri Dowty, Director of Action on Rights for Children (ARCH):<\/p>\n

\u201cThis appalling security lapse has placed children in the UK in immediate danger especially those who are already vulnerable. Child Benefit records contain every child\u2019s address and date of birth [italics mine – Kim]<\/em>. We are not surprised that the Chair of HMRC\u2019s Board has resigned immediately.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Last year Terri Dowty co-authored a report for the British Information Commissioner which highlighted the risks to children\u2019s safety of the government\u2019s policy of creating large, centralised databases containing sensitive information about children. But he says the government chose to dismiss the concerns of the report's authors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dowty's\u00a0experience is\u00a0a clear instance of my thesis that reduction of identity leakage is still not\u00a0considered to be a “must-have” rather than a “nice-to-have”.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has recently passed regulations allowing them to build databases containing details of every child in England. They have also announced an intention to create a second national database containing the in-depth personal profiles of children using services. They have batted all constructive criticism away, and repeatedly stressed that children\u2019s data is safe in their hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe events of today demonstrate that this is simply not the case, and all of our concerns for children\u2019s safety are fully justified.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report \u2018Children\u2019s Databases: Safety and Privacy\u2019 <\/a>can be downloaded here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u00a0the “inconvenient” input\u00a0of people like Terry Dowty is\u00a0often\u00a0dismissed – much the way other security\u00a0concerns\u00a0used to be\u00a0–\u00a0until computer systems began to\u00a0fall under the weight of internet and insider attacks…<\/p>\n

I urge fellow architects, IT leaders, policy thinkers and technologically aware politicians\u00a0to\u00a0consider very seriously\u00a0the advice of advocates like Terry Dowty.\u00a0 We can\u00a0deeply benefit from building safe and privacy-enhancing systems that are secure enough to withstand attack and procedural error.\u00a0\u00a0Let's\u00a0work together\u00a0to translate\u00a0this thinking\u00a0to those who are less technical.\u00a0\u00a0We need to explain that\u00a0all the functionality required for government and business can be provided in ways that enhance privacy, rather than diminish it or set society up for failure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the functionality required for government and business can be provided in ways that enhance privacy, rather than diminish it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,3,40,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.identityblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}