Controls on data-banks sought in U.K. report

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32971, 18 July 1972, Page 12

Controls on data-banks sought in U.K. report

(By

ALAN GRAHAM.

N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent)

LONDON, July 17.

Upholders of civil liberties in Britain have welcomed the official report released last week on privacy, bugging and the like—as far as it goes. Police records and information collected by Government departments did not come under the investigation.

Published by the Younger Committee, after more than two years of close study, the report calls for bugging to be made illegal, and for greater privacy for the individual from the likes of banks, newspapers, broadcasters, private detectives, employers, certain doctors and credit raters.

The report is important because almost every complaint about privacy since the Conservative Government took office two years ago has been met with an official request to “wait and see what the Younger Committee turns up.” Therefore, it is not surprising that most objections to the new report do not complain of what Sir Kenneth Younger and his colleagues do propose—everyone seems basically in favour of these—but of what the committee omits to recommend. NO GENERAL RIGHT

Particularly, there is disquiet that the committee was not able to accept a proposal put to it that there should be a general right of privacy. On a vote, the proposal was defeated by 14 to 2, the two dissenters, Labour M.P., Mr Alexander Lyon, and a Queen's Counsel, Mr Donald Ross, arguing that a general right of privacy would give

teeth to the proposals. They said there was no evidence from other countries which had similar “privacy laws” of their ill-effects.

But the majority of the committee maintained that a general right would put at risk the right of freedom of speech and communication and several of them considered this was an even greater right than privacy. They argued that the specific recommendations made were sufficient to cover existing gaps in the law. And the proposals certainly are extensive—there are 40 of them, covering 14 areas in which intrusions into privacy are alleged to exist. Sir Kenneth Younger and his team have also come under fire for not providing for the licensing of all databanks, although the committee -does make several proposals for controlling computers, including: (1) Information should be held for specific purposes and not used for other purposes without permis-

sion; (2) Limited categories of people should have access to the information, which

should be kept to the minimum required, and (3) The subject should be able to find out what a computer knows about him. “DATA POLLUTION” According to the National Council for Civil Liberties, the Younger Committee “fails to grapple with creeping data pollution” and “the com-

mittee’s plan for a standing: commission to study com-1 puter privacy in the future I represents merely another; version of the wait-and-see policy of which the com-j mittee is part.” The campaigning Labour i IM.P., Mr Leslie Huckfield. who has put forward several] Parliamentary bills on the; licensing of data-banks, is naturally unhappy that no firm proposal has been made on this point. “TIMID MOUSE” He is annoyed also that! the committee, because of its terms of reference, was unable to study invasions of i privacy by the Government, the police and civil servants generally. “The committee,” said Mr: Huckfield, “has emerged as a timid mouse caught in the trap of its own terms of reference.” But the Association of British Investigators has welcomed the tougher rules and licensing proposed for private eyes, declaring: “We favour control, mainly because it prevents unscrupulous people acting as investigators.” And general support for the committee came from the “Guardian,” the liberalminded newspaper which has regularly published articles about alleged breaches of privacy.

“The committee,” it said, “has made a comprehensive review of intrusions, leakages, prying and the law. It has done an excellent job.

“While its recommendations are bound to be controversial, broadly they ought to command support.”