UK Government Data Sharing - Privacy International

Privacy International have issued a report on how the Coroners and Justice Bill Part 8 - Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) will impact on data protection in the UK, and it makes for depressing reading.

Clause 152 of the Bill will permit an almost limitless range of data sharing pportunities both within government and between commercial organisations[...]

What's depressing about all this is the apparently total inability of civil servants to look after private data (which in my view shouldn't be on a laptop hard drive, or on a USB stick in the first place). 

It's also darkly amusing that tomorrow, Wednesday 28th January, has been designated European Data Protection Day 2009.   Ho hum, business as usual, then.