All Joined Up

First reaction was a worried concern at the news that HMRC records were to be used for the first time to track defaulting fathers failing to supporting a child. The more I thought the more rational it became. We are all required, on penalty of imprisonment, to submit all sort of our personal details to various branches of government. Income Tax is one obvious, but passports, car tax, bm&d certificates, various benefits, the list just goes on. Previously each of these records would be been laboriously penned by clerks into the respective department ledgers and then closely guarded by them. However the information you were legally required to lodge was and still is accessible to any other department with a legitimate right to know. You as a citizen had and have no rights on the use the government makes on any data that they require you to submit. Better, much more efficient, then to have one central source of government held data about each of us, rather than duplicate entries and an increased scope for them to get it wrong or have to justify the same issue multiple times.


It is just a matter of trust. And there is the rub. None of us trust the government any longer. The skilled, experienced pragmatic clerk with discretion to waive or redefine rules occasionally lapsing into the bumbling buffoon has been swept aside by uniform absurdities. Rules to be adhered to without reason, without sense, keeping to a strict interpretation, no matter how inappropriate, thus, keeping the nose clean, without the least risk of criticism, has become the mantra. That is the new wave of inexperienced, mind-numbed data bashers who cannot see the tree, let alone the wood, for the chance of a canker on the leaf. Civil service declining standards and ineptitude is not the only point. Government are on record for abusing the data they gather about us. Selling them on for commercial gain, taking too relaxed a view of our need for privacy about our close personal details and affairs all the way to being too incompetent to guard the data they have either by preventing hacker access or 'leaving' data files for others to pick up.


Paranoia? No, the key details that enable your access to this electronic world and which are the summation of you as a electronic identity are very few. Add a few choice pieces of additional data, either a PAYE number, or employer, or NHS number, or benefit category and it becomes incredibly valuable to large numbers of commercial interests. Which is why they are keen to entice the government to give away our private data with irresistible largess.


If only the government could act responsibly, safeguard our data and be frugal with who has the right to access specific tiers of information with challenging accountability then a joined up government data bank would be the most sensible and logical step. No longer having to prove your identity to Revenue, Housing Benefit, NHS and so on each time. A one-stop shop makes practical sense on this C21. If only. In the meantime a pseudo identity for government purposes but keeping your real electronic self invisible. I dream.