The UK Government waited more than 10 days before telling Parliament and the Public it has accidentally lost sensitive personal details of 25 million individuals.
Under current US laws, the Government would have had to notify immediately.
The petition calls on the Prime Minister to place a legal duty on public and private sector organisations, so that affected customers are informed immediately if the security of their personal data has been compromised.
Individuals have a right to know straight away when this has occurred to protect against identify theft.
Mandatory notification would make organisations more careful and more accountable for the use of personal information.
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If you are a UK resident, and, like me, you happen to think that this is a good idea, please sign up and perhaps democracy might work for a change …
Cheers,
Azrael
Hi,
This particular incident leads me to be concerned over the theft of my children's identities rather than my own.
If these disks are in the wrong hands or do fall into the wrong hands they would more likely be intending the sell the information of our children rather than us parents.
Could an adult register a 14 year old girl (possibly here illegally) at a doctor's surgery in 3 years time using my daughter's details? They would have my daughter's name, date of birth, national health number, child benefit number and mine and my wife's personal details. Once registered there they could get NHS treatment and perhaps access to other specialist services from the local authority (social services, PCT services such as learning support etc).
In 3 years time I'd bet so much else will have happened that we will have forgotten about the loss of these disks and very likely the relevant people will be less diligent in verifying the details of a person presenting themselves with this data.
This is the part that concerns me, not my bank details which I would have to give to anyone wanting to pay money into my account.
Steve
Slightly unrelated, but I still think its bloody stupid that many sites use security questions that can be easily answered with a minor amount of digging place of birth, fathers name etc ?
The possibilites are staggering, as is the basic level of incompetence shown by all involved in _all_ of the Government's recent "security issues".
I have to second Steve in the fear of my children being the ones to suffer in future - the steps to register for passports, bank accounts, GPs etc. are all yet to come, and if someone else is quicker off the mark than they are, then the effort of proving that they are the genuine person will be immense !
Rich2005 - spot on - a lesson to us all to use a non-obvious answer to any of the security questions.
People stealing the identities of children is a problem as old as the hills. I was a victim. When I went to get my first drivers license almost thirty years ago, (just to date myself) someone had already used my Social Security number to register for their license. It was very tough for me at that age to understand why I was not allowed to get my license until I could provide further proof of my identity.
People stealing the identities of children is a problem as old as the hills. I was a victim.
Sorry to hear that !
It has been stupidly well documented in the UK for the better part of 35 years regarding some of the flaws in the system …
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