"Missing" Data

I teach ICT and I KNOW that there is really no such thing as total security - the only way is not to give any data out AT ALL, EVER and to have a self contained internal network with no Internet access. And that is not going to happen is it? I wouldn't trust them with a plastic spoon, never mind anything of any value at all!

It is really scary stuff.

Never mind total security, this stuff doesn't even have basic encription measures. You plug in the stick and it all comes up. There is stuff that can be done to secure the data, not 100% but you would need a serious nerd to get it out. But they do nothing.
The worst part of this is that criminals will be paid compensation (for being in prison) if their data is used.

The idea of an ID card system makes me really angry. It's already possible for agencies to know your movements every time your car registration is noted by the ever increasing number of cameras (and I don't just mean if you're speeding) so this seems to me like the beginnings of something that ensures we can be traced even when on foot/public transport. The argument is that if you've done nothing wrong you've nothing to fear. Well I've never knowingly broken the law, - though I have phoned in 'sick' then taken my kids to the seaside - but I still don't like the idea of this type of government control. It's not so much what might happen now, more what might be forced upon us in the future. We're already watched by more cameras than any other country in the world - and that includes all the repressive dictatorships, I think we've gone far enough down that road.

I don't get what all the fuss is about. Sure the incompetance is staggering and I agree with above comments about the use of encryption but what would the finder of these records do with the data? Its like ID cards, cameras and any other "big brother" type of systems. Do you really think they are interested in a boring middle of the road person like you or me? Seriously?

I just don't see it and instead hope that these systems assit the police and authorities in preventing and apprehending the no-do-gooders! I strongly believe the only people opposed to these schemes are those with something to hide. Its like speed cameras - nobody likes them but if you don't speed you've nothing to worry about!

The cost of these schemes however...

Sorry, Matt. I've never had so much as a parking ticket, but all this hi-tech surveillance makes me uncomfortable. Later today, if my daughter gets a move on, or possibly tomorrow, I'll be visiting my new-born grandson in hospital. In order to do that I'll have to be passed through two sets of electronic doors, when I first see him he'll be wearing an electronic tracking device on his leg and I won't be able to move him more than a couple of yards from his cot or an alarm will shriek. I fail to see how this helps. It's an abnormal imposition on what should be a joyous and natural part of family life and treats us all like criminals. Yes, I know that there's this obsession about baby-stealing. But this sort of thing went on when my kids were born too, the difference was I accepted responsibility for their care and the hospital had adequate staff. Today there'll be one or perhaps two nurses on duty for the whole ward and her one job will be to speak to visitors via an intercom, then press the button to allow them in. If any new mum requires anything they'll have to leave their babies and go to find her. I'd far rather see us protected by larger numbers of dedicated human beings than for us to rely completely upon electronics. As for preventing criminal behaviour, I have serious doubts that it does. Surveillance cameras pick up little as the true deviants now wear hoodies and change their number-plates and thus the whole system is, as far as I can see, rendered useless.

I 'lost' my baby in hospital. It was only 20 mins but it was horrific. She was 1 hour old. If she had been wearing a tag from birth it would not have happened. She hadn't even been issued with a name tag at this point.
I'm not sure that you have chosen the best example for your rant Bluemoon!!!
I do, however, agree with you in principle. Although as the current government doesn't know it's a**e from it's elbow I don't think we are in any immediate danger from this sort of data collection!!!

It must have been horrific, tootles. Presumably it was a member of staff who lost your baby and not you. I'm speaking from our experience of our last grandchild. My OH had been at work, so arrived at the hospital later than the rest of us. He was stopped at the door and, because the baby was premature he was in special baby unit. OH said he'd come to visit our grandson and gave his own name and the baby's. The next minute the 'guard' (who laughingly called herself a nurse) came flying through the door at him, demanding; 'Who are you? What do you want? Why are you trying to get on this ward? We have no baby of that name here.' It seems that although we were already calling him by his given name, plus his surname, and the hospital simply had him on their list as 'Baby' plus his surname this made them think that OH was up to no good. Well for a start you'd think that a busy maternity hospital would get the idea that a child's family would not call him Baby Bloggs or whatever, but would use a christian name too. My OH was so upset that, although he came to the hospital with us he never again attempted to see his grandson and remained in the waiting room. Even when the baby went home my OH didn't attempt to pick him up for a long time, even though we visited almost daily. Eventually my daughter put the baby in OH's arms and forced him to hold him and now you can't keep them apart. My OH is a fantastic grandfather (as he was a father), but this idiocy almost ruined any bond that might have been formed between them. I'm just hoping that nothing like that happens today, I'm still close to tears when I think about it and I just feel that a little less reliance upon electronics and more upon dedicated staff would be appropriate.