Once again those splendid chaps over at Ideal Government bring us welcome news, this time about the launch of Privacy Impact Assessments by the Information Commissioner (relevant press release available here). As William Heath suggests, ID cards/ContactPoint/eCAF/Connecting for Health/ eBorders/Scottish bus pass scheme for the elderly/&c would almost certainly have fallen foul of the criteria for assessment. And wouldn't we be in a much better situation if PIAs had been prepared for all these things (and more) so that the necessary and appropriate adjustments/amendments to secure our data and protect our privacy could have been made?
What I'm less certain about is what level of compulsion, if any, the ICO can impose so far as the preparation of PIAs is concerned. So let us hope that some bright spark(s) in Parliament and/or Government (I don't hold out much hope that the latter will) manages to get their head round this and has a go at legislating to make it a statutory duty for Government in all its incarnations to prepare PIAs. Were this to happen it might - just might - limit the almost unrestrained opportunities that our lords and masters have of making a complete and utter horlicks of all their IT schemes and creating hugely expensive 'white elephant' projects all over the place.
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