|
|
Article: Are our lives safe in their hands?
- Article from:
- New Statesman
- Article date:
- May 28, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright New Statesman Ltd. May 28, 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
Health
The Stasi was relentless in its pursuit of data collection, despite its lack of decent technology. The everyday details of the country's citizens were instead logged meticulously by pen on paper. In the 21st century, the UK government is equally obsessed with charting our lives, from the pills we take to the type of sex we have. But it has one massive modern-day advantage over the east Germans - computers.
From biometric passports, to national ID cards, to an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau, the data is - or will be - all stored for use by one authority or another that needs to know, or just wants to know, what we are up to. And it will all be accessible by thousands, even hundreds ...