British Identity - It's mostly LOST!

Americans feel stressed about the safety of their identities.

It's a good thing they are not British!

Here is some of what David Harrison of The Telegraph reported. "A record 37 million items of personal data went missing [in 2007].

Most of the data was lost by government officials but councils, NHS trusts, banks, insurance companies and chain stores also mislaid or published personal information about staff or members of the public. Many losses were caused through CDs going missing in the post, laptop thefts, and inadequate security systems that failed to stop hackers reading information stored on computers."

The details lost included those of names, addresses, passports, bank and mortgage accounts, credit cards, hospital records, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, driving licences and telephone numbers."

Well, that pretty much takes care of every scrap of information someone needs to totally screw over any citizen!

"The "shocking" total of 36,989,300 items prompted calls for the Government to kill its plans for national identity cards.

Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who produced the figures, said: "The ID card project is now in freefall, because faith in the Government's ability to handle personal data has hit crisis point - 2007 was the worst ever year for personal privacy. We need a total rethink on data protection enforcement and an immediate end to the identity cards plan."

This really answers the question of why a National ID Card is good in theory but very bad when you understand that government bureaucrats don't give a damn about your security and privacy. How many government employees are doing jail time for putting at risk the security, happiness, and tranquility of citizens? The answer is that I personally have NEVER seen a single story (unless someone actually STOLE this data).

"The biggest single loss was in November when Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, revealed two CDs with personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants and their parents had gone missing."

Yeah and I saw somewhere that this amounts to 40% of all Briots! That's what you get for sucking up so much government welfare!

"Three weeks ago Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, admitted that the details of three million learner drivers had gone missing when a hard drive was lost in Iowa, USA.

Last February it emerged 80 passports are lost in the post every month."

Oh good! And how does this help protect the world against terrorists using illegal British passports?!

Last month, CDs with personal information on thousands of benefit claimants were found at the home of a former contractor to the Department of Work and Pensions.

Three days later the names, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of 45,000 people claiming benefits in west Yorkshire were lost by the Government.

A spokesman for the Home Office said the National Identity Register will not hold tax, benefit or other financial records. "We will draw on any lessons learned from incidents of data loss.The whole scheme will be fully security-accredited."

Stay tuned because the risks to your safety and security are getting greater and greater even if you do not live in England!