Reports
On Thursday 26 October 2006, Richard Thomas presented an FOI progress report to the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The report documents the contribution of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the 18 months since the Act came fully into force.
Richard said, 'It has been a challenging time, but we are proud of our achievements. We experienced problems over the first 12 months, which we have tackled with great vigour. We can now demonstrate clear and significant improvements in our complaints handling since the beginning of 2006. We are confident that we are moving in the right direction and that our performance will continue to improve.
This report explains the changes that we have made, and signals the performance that can be expected from us in the future with existing baseline funding or increased resources'
The report also includes the ICO’s new enforcement strategy which sets out how a tougher approach will be used with recalcitrant public bodies from now on. Many public authorities have learnt from handling freedom of information requests and have improved their systems for dealing with them. However, where public authorities are regularly or seriously failing to meet expected standards of good practice, the ICO will take appropriate action.
Freedom of information: ICO progress report.
A surveillance society?
The Surveillance society report was specially commissioned for the 28th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners . It looks at surveillance in 2006 and projects forward ten years to 2016. It describes a surveillance society as one where technology is extensively and routinely used to track and record our activities and movements. This includes systematic tracking and recording of travel and use of public services, automated use of CCTV, analysis of buying habits and financial transactions, and the work-place monitoring of telephone calls, email and internet use. This can often be in ways which are invisible or not obvious to ordinary individuals as they are watched and monitored, and the report shows how pervasive surveillance looks set to accelerate in the years to come.
The report provides glimpses of life in a surveillance society in 2016, including how:
- Shoppers will be scanned as they enter stores, their clothes recognised through unique RFID tags embedded in them. This will be matched with loyalty card data to affect the way they are treated as they do their shopping, with some given preferential treatment over others
- Cars linked to global satellite navigation systems which will provide the quickest route to avoid current congestion, automatically debit the mileage charge from bank accounts and allow police to monitor the speed of all cars and to track selected cars more closely
- Employees will be subject to biometric and psychometric tests plus lifestyle profiles with diagnostic health tests common place. Jobs are refused to those who are seen as a health risk or don’t submit to the tests. Staff benefit packages are drawn up depending upon any perceived future health problems that may affect their productivity.
- Schools will introduce card systems to allow parents to monitor what their children eat, their attendance, record of achievement and drug test results
- Facial recognition systems will be used to monitor our movements using tiny cameras embedded in lampposts and in walls, with “friendly flying eyes in the sky” (unmanned aerial vehicles) keeping an eye on us from above
- Older people will feel more isolated as sensors and cameras in their home provide reassurance to their families who know they are safe therefore pay fewer family visits.
- Prosperous individuals will start to use personal information management services to monitor their ‘data shadow’ to make sure they are not disadvantaged by any of the vast quantities of information held about them being wrong or out of date. Others without the resources do this will be forced to stand on the other side of a new ‘digital divide’.
A report on the surveillance society
A report on the surveillance society - appendices
A report on the surveillance society - public discussion document
A report on the surveillance society - summary
What price privacy?
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas is calling for prison sentences of up to two years for the illegal buying and selling of personal information.
He is using special powers under the Data Protection Act to present a report to Parliament exposing the nature of this unlawful trade. The report 'What price privacy?' reflects his deep concern that confidential information can be too easily obtained improperly from public and private organisations, causing significant harm and distress to individuals.
The report has been published by The Stationery Office, and can be purchased from their website www.tso.co.uk/bookshop
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