The most conspicuous product of the government’s ICT programme has been the accumulation and concentration of vast quantities of personal data. This has both potential for abuse by the government and risk to the security of that data. This is the natural tendency of a government that believes that state action is the answer to every problem; that top-down centralised command and control still works. It is the tendency of a government locked into the bureaucratic age.
The Rowntree report “Data Nation” in March 2009 examined 46 large UK public sector databases. They concluded: “A quarter of the public-sector databases reviewed are almost certainly illegal under human rights or data protection law; they should be scrapped or substantially redesigned. More than half have significant problems with privacy or effectiveness and could fall foul of a legal challenge.” These databases include National DNA Database and National Identity Register, ContactPoint.
This is a product of centralisation not IT, coupled with a poor evidence base. How many crimes have actually been solved by DNA and at what cost per crime?
The most recent aeroplane incident had nothing to do with database-based solutions.
Today, I hear on the news that thirty opportunities were missed to prevent an unfortunate incident in Yorkshire(?) Databases don’t intervene or do their jobs properly..