The government and personal data - should we be worried?

Posted in 'Identity Theft' by Richard Catlin

25 March 2009

Proposals to store details of how we interact on social networking sites have been heavily criticised by privacy campaigners. At the same time, Facebook has announced plans to beef up security and combat fraudsters.

The Home Office is considering plans to force websites to share data about their users as part of its ‘Intercept Modernisation Programme’. This is designed to intercept criminal communications and liaisons with the aim of combating fraud and terrorism.

As part of a multi-billion pound initiative, records are planned to be kept on a central database for a period of 12 months.

Despite reassurances given that the data stored might not go so far as to record conversations made online, and given the poor track record of Government departments in keeping personal data secure, this is a worrying proposal. The number of high-profile data losses involving Government departments are now too many to mention. Few of us have remained unaffected following a string of data breaches, lost CDs, stolen and often unencrypted laptops, lost memory sticks and important government papers being left on trains.

On the back of the Home Office announcement, Facebook has revealed that they are ramping up their own security procedures. The site, which has around 17 million British users, has been the victim of a number of high-profile attacks recently, along with fellow social networking sites such as Twitter.

As the popularity of social networks has grown, so has the number of people attempting to hack into them or defraud registered users.

Despite warnings over the dangers of posting sensitive information online, many people still place themselves at risk of identity fraud by disclosing details that could make things much easier for potential fraudsters. It’s particularly important never to reveal your place of birth, which can be a key to obtaining your birth certificate, and if you can, try to avoid using the same password on social networking sites that you may also use elsewhere.

Recorded levels of identity fraud on credit and debit cards have increased by almost 40% year-on-year, reaching £47.4m in 2008. This is mainly attributable to criminals intercepting and taking over an existing account.

You can use checkmyfile in several ways to help prevent identity fraud happening to you.

By checking your postcode on our free Check your Postcode service you can see immediately whether your postcode has been the target of a recent identity fraud attempt.

You can also check to see whether your lifestyle puts you at greater risk of having your identity stolen by using our free Identity Theft Check Service.

You can also increase your protection by monitoring your credit report. Our Unlimited Access Service costs from just £4.95 a month.