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The not so secret society
18-06-2009
by Ralph Averbuch
Are we in a losing battle attempting to keep data private?
There's a wonderful irony that all members of the UK's Houses of Parliament now have their claims for allowances and expenses online for public scrutiny and 'transparent government', whilst almost all the best material has been in the public domain for the past two months thanks to technology. It's been widely reported that the whistle blower, who allegedly sold the incriminating data on MPs' expenses to the UK's Telegraph newspaper, was simply able to copy all the material onto a portable device -- presumably a key or small hard drive -- and walk out of the building. Fact is, if it wasn't for the hue and cry over the outrageous claims some MPs made, there would have been an attempt to keep it covered up. But it would have still failed ultimately. It's embarrassing stuff and certainly shows a consistent element who are more than happy to milk the system. But what this illustrates is that there really is no longer any such thing as effective confidentiality. Any large organisation, in order to function, needs to share data with significant numbers of internal staff and potentially external suppliers and customers. In that environment the whole notion of what's private or confidential takes a beating and we are all regularly reminded of data going AWOL. Just two days ago the media reported on a number of laptops stolen from the HSE with unencrypted data on individual's personal financial information. So, rather than constantly attempting to keep secrets, perhaps, for government at least, it's time to change our attitudes towards the public and private nature of data. Surely all information gathered in the service of the citizen should ultimately be in the pubic domain if the tax-payer is funding it? Idea... let's start with every member of the Dail's expenses and we can work down from there.
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