Saturday 31 October, 12.15pm until 1.15pm, Courtyard Gallery Lunchtime Debates
It is increasingly argued that the welfare state must use information more intelligently so it can deliver more personalised services. Increasing quantities of data are being made available to public service providers. The theory goes that a more ‘intelligent state’ can be achieved through learning from data taken from both a micro (personal) and macro (system/organisational) level, and using this information about ‘customers’ allows the state to provide higher quality targeted services at lower cost.
But for all the alleged gains of efficiency, what about the ethics of data-sharing? Are government agencies, from social services to local GPs, from education to employment, blithely disregarding their clients’ privacy? Arguably patients may suffer if rules surrounding data sharing prevent access to the best clinical care, but doctor-patient confidentiality traditionally provided an important protection for individuals against the exploitation of medical information. Critics of the new ContactPoint database, which stores information about every child in the UK from birth, argue its purpose goes beyond child protection and intrusively polices family life. More pragmatically, can the government be trusted to store personal information safely, and what are the security risks of government departments sharing data? A recent Mori poll showed that more than 60% of the public are happy for their data to be used but 75% don’t trust the government to handle it securely.
Are those who cry ‘privacy’ over-reacting? Should the interests of wider society and an efficient welfare state trump those individuals who want personal privacy? When does surveillance, electronic communications monitoring, or large scale data collection and matching, lead to a Big Brother state? Perhaps data-sharing would be acceptable if it operated on an informed consent basis, where people could opt in or out. With such fundamental issues at stake regarding the relationship between citizens and the state, is it possible to achieve a balance?
Listen to the session audio…
Other formats are available here
 | Dr Ian Brown senior research fellow, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford; co-author, Online Privacy and the Law (forthcoming) |
 | Rob Killick CEO, Clerkswell; author, The UK After The Recession |
 | Sir David Varney former executive chairman, HM Revenue & Customs; former CEO designate, British Gas; author, Service Transformation: A better service for citizens and businesses, a better deal for the taxpayer |
| Chair: | |
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Jo Herlihy
customer insight manager, Nottinghamshire County Council |
Smarter use of public service statistics can save lives as well as money. But anxious civil libertarians want to stop the state sharing our personal records. They must not succeed.
Tim Kelsey, Prospect, 30 July 2009While authorities are beginning to share information more frequently, there is still a gap between the availability of data, and how it is used to help vulnerable children.
Nic Fell, LocalGov, 29 July 2009Safeguarding identity strategy ... aims to deliver a common framework for the use and handling of individuals' identity information.
Identity & Passport Service, Home Office, June 2009Control over our personal data is at the heart of the Labour Government’s plans for improving delivery of public services. Information on how we live our lives is to be centralised so that the State can decide when and where to provide public services. It is a “we know best” approach, a panopticon, with government insight into every aspect of our lives.
Liam Maxwell, Centre for Policy Studies, June 2009Privacy intrusions don’t just happen when information is inappropriately gathered, stored or shared. Intervention in people’s private lives and private thoughts now occurs so routinely around that it has become a normal fact of life.
Jo Herlihy, Culture Wars, 22 May 2009The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust has published a major report on the UK's Database State. Technology is transforming government, and there is an urgent need to control and understand it.
Anthony Barnett, openDemocracy, 22 March 2009In October 2007 Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs lost two discs containing a copy of the entire child benefit database. Suddenly issues of privacy and data security were on the front page of most newspapers and leading the TV news bulletins.
Ross Anderson, Ian Brown, Terri Dowty et al, Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, March 20092008 may be the year when GPs find themselves in the firing line over confidentiality, as ever more patients try to opt out of ‘the NHS database’ and the Government tries ever more desperately to keep the project on track.
Ross Anderson, British Journal of General Practice, 1 February 2008The whole population and every UK visitor should be added to the national DNA database, a senior judge has said.
BBC News, 5 September 2007... an aspect of the report is to identify the opportunities to deliver better public services through joining up service provision across the public sector.
Sir David Varney, HM Treasury, December 2006This is a blog project designed to give you your very own cut-out'n'keep guide to all of the children's databases
Action on Rights for Children
