UK Parliament / Open data

Serious Crime Bill [HL]

My noble friend has just mentioned the evidence of a rise in anxiety about privacy. I know that it is very tiresome for the noble Baroness when people go on about this subject, but I wonder whether the Government realise just how careful they have to be in the whole matter of data sharing. I heard only this past week of a neighbour of mine who, while on holiday in Kent, for some reason drove along in the bus lane and was charged. He was told that, if he did not believe it, he should look on the internet. He found on the internet a picture of himself and his wife driving along a bus lane in Kent. That absolutely terrified him. He is an intelligent man, and he said to me, ““Soon they will know where all of us are all the time””. The Government do not realise quite how alarming this is to people. We must very carefully consider any request for a code of practice and any way of making sure that people are told what the rules are about these new intrusions that the Government feel are necessary in order to foresee crime before it happens. This is an important amendment and I hope that the Minister will not find it too tiresome that I give this example. It is not just my noble friend Lord Crickhowell who is frightened; it is also other people, such as my neighbour.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
690 c1280 
Session
2006-07
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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