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 NO 2 ID – STOP ID CARDS AND THE DATABASE STATE January 2007
Thousands of people have already downloaded and used TheBigOptOut.org's[1] letter, and officials at Connecting for Health - the NPfIT division of the Department of Health - are making increasingly desperate and sometimes contradictory statements and claims.
Lord Warner (only days after announcing his resignation) got a drubbing from Cambridge Professor of Security Engineering, Ross Anderson on the Today show, and Harry Cayton, CfH's 'patient tsar', just can't seem to understand why people won't take him at his word on the security of the system, and who will have access to your medical records, just weeks after DoH has gone back on its promise of a meaningful opt-out.
Please write to your GP using the opt out letter on TheBigOptOut site, their handy form allows you to enter your details and then print off your own letter. In addition please tell all your friends about the opt out letter - the more of us that contact our GPs the more likely we are to succeed.
References:
[1] The Big Opt Out has been formed in response to the fact that millions of personal medical records are to be uploaded, regardless of patients' wishes, to a central national database (the NHS spine).
As the Guardian put it in November: "The NHS's centralised and computerised system 'Spine' poses a very real threat of breaches of confidentiality of health records and raises the spectre of other agencies getting a view too".
It is likely that the NHS database will be linked to the National Identity Register via citizen's unique National Identity Register Number.
[2] The opt out letter is at www.TheBigOptOut.org/optoutletter
What's next?
Consultation on DNA database
A consultation by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics (NCoB) is seeking views on DNA and the DNA database.
The consultation, 'Forensic use of bioinformation: ethical issues' closes on 30th January 2007.
We urge anyone who feels strongly about this issue to read the consultation paper and submit a written response asap (responses can be sent via e-mail).
It is worth remembering that when it was found that DNA data (and samples) were being retained illegally, the government did not respond by enforcing rules that existed to protect the innocent - it passed new laws that allowed the innocent (even the proven innocent) to be treated exactly the same as convicted criminals.
For more information on DNA issues generally see the website of Genewatch (www .genewatch.org).
Also see Here
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