The Government and your personal info
Posted: 18 Apr 2014, 18:52There is now a quiet movement underway to allow the Inland Revenue to release (or rather sell) "anonymised records" to third parties. In other words, your tax records.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ayers-data
You may recall I (and many others!) railed over this when it was mooted by the NHS with your medical records. It was obvious that the information being given out could identity individuals, despite what the NHS said. As a result, the "Care" scheme was put back six months - but it hasn't gone away. I wrote to my GP surgery asking them to note I was opting out, and true to form, they failed to reply. We have also personally had data protection issues with that surgery about release of information to Lloydspharmacy without our permission.
From the article:
The government has strict rules about what can be released outside HMRC, with a near total ban on data sharing unless it is beneficial for the organisation's internal work. But despite the restrictions, HMRC has quietly launched a pilot programme that has released data about VAT registration for research purposes to three private credit ratings agencies: Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet.
To comply with the law, the private rating agencies, which determine credit scores for millions of people and businesses, have been contracted to act on behalf of HMRC and are "therefore treated as part of the department" – giving them access to tax data about businesses that would otherwise be confidential.
Please note the blue wording. That is exactly what happened to me with the NHS a few years back. In a nutshell, they wrote to me and said we're giving your diabetic retinal details to a third party outside the NHS who arranges admin for them. Did I object? I wrote back, you betcha, I refuse permission.
A year later, they wrote to me again and said hard cheese, we're over-riding your objection whether you like it or not, because that third party is now being treated as part of the department.
And people wonder why Ostriches have no trust in the NHS or the Government .....
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ayers-data
You may recall I (and many others!) railed over this when it was mooted by the NHS with your medical records. It was obvious that the information being given out could identity individuals, despite what the NHS said. As a result, the "Care" scheme was put back six months - but it hasn't gone away. I wrote to my GP surgery asking them to note I was opting out, and true to form, they failed to reply. We have also personally had data protection issues with that surgery about release of information to Lloydspharmacy without our permission.
From the article:
The government has strict rules about what can be released outside HMRC, with a near total ban on data sharing unless it is beneficial for the organisation's internal work. But despite the restrictions, HMRC has quietly launched a pilot programme that has released data about VAT registration for research purposes to three private credit ratings agencies: Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet.
To comply with the law, the private rating agencies, which determine credit scores for millions of people and businesses, have been contracted to act on behalf of HMRC and are "therefore treated as part of the department" – giving them access to tax data about businesses that would otherwise be confidential.
Please note the blue wording. That is exactly what happened to me with the NHS a few years back. In a nutshell, they wrote to me and said we're giving your diabetic retinal details to a third party outside the NHS who arranges admin for them. Did I object? I wrote back, you betcha, I refuse permission.
A year later, they wrote to me again and said hard cheese, we're over-riding your objection whether you like it or not, because that third party is now being treated as part of the department.
And people wonder why Ostriches have no trust in the NHS or the Government .....
