Author: info@amberhawk.com

Privacy is an important right that feeds into other rights; for instance, a lack of privacy can undermine family life, confidential services and a free press. Who would want to tip-off a journalist, reveal sensitive details about oneself, or engage in a controversial political idea or demonstrate in order to change public policy if the state can record you on CCTV, track where you drive with ANPR, or have access to records of who you have contacted by phone, or

Ian Kerr, the private detective from Droitwich (Worcestershire), maintained a blacklist for use by the construction industry; he has just been fined £5,000 for breaching the Data Protection Act. Although the Information Commissioner has issued a press release explaining that this is the end of the matter, the real truth is that the prosecution exposes the fact that Government chose to exempt manual dodgy dossiers of personal details from the protection afforded by the Act and the weakness of the

Without doubt services such as Google Street View can be useful. Just imagine that you are going for a job-interview in an unfamiliar city-centre; isn’t it useful to know the lay of the land before you travel? However, away from the city centres, some householders claim that Google’s Street View has invaded their private space by publishing pictures that can zoom through the upstairs windows or into front rooms. Sometimes, privacy campaigners have based their data protection arguments on the

Am I the only individual on the planet who was surprised at the press response to the recent announcement by the Home Secretary that the ID Card would not be compulsory? As far as I know, ID Cards were never going to be compulsory until Parliament voted for compulsion. So what’s new? The press coverage has overlooked the fact that the privacy problems lie not with the ID Card but with its related database, the National Identity Register (NIR). The

The Policing and Crime Bill currently before the House of Lords provides for wide ranging powers in relation to the use and retention of personal data, in particular CCTV and Automated Number Plate Readers (ANPR) images, and personal data derived from DNA samples. Did you know about this? – Probably not. This is because the Government has explained the purpose of the clause in terms of the loss of its ECHR case relating to the national DNA database (i.e. S

The MPs expenses scandal has awoken a debate on “what Parliament is for?”. It had always supposed it was to scrutinise legislation, but it is clear to me that this does not happen; the executive branch of government has control of the legislature and can whip the votes in favour of what it wants. An elected second chamber, now the policy of this Government, runs the risk of extending the Government’s control of Parliament; do you think that the party