No ‘Big Brother’ take-over in U.K.

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 15

No ‘Big Brother’ take-over in U.K.

(S.ZP.A. Staff Crspdti LONDON, Dec. 19. Nine years before George Orwell's forbidding year, the British Government has announced moves to prevent “Big Brother” from taking over in the shape of an all-seeing, all-knowing computer.

After an investigation into ; the threat to individual privacy posed by computers, the Government says in a White Paper: “The time has come when those who use computers to handle personal information, however responsible they are, can no

longer remain the sole, judges of whether their own: systems adequately safeguard privacy.” As a result, an independent body with statutory! powers, known as the Data: Protection Authority, is to be established to monitor the use of all computers, and to ensure that they have; “proper regard to privacy.” The White Paper has been: published because of mounting public concern about the threat to privacy from the; increasing use of computers i to collect and process per-! sonal information. There are already more than 13,000 computers in' use in Britain, and the' 'White Paper says that few people realise just howl much detail of their private lives is already stored away. The Government itself has: more than 200 channels for; collecting information about; people on computers, which: already know the names,! addresses, details of mar-

•iage and children, educational background and qualifications, occupations, ownership of cars and other possessions, financial circumstances, and state of health af millions of Britons. All this information is stored in different Government computers, and is confidential, but the White Paper admits that it would take only a central data bank to bring it all together in one “Big Brother” file on each individual. “But, the White Paper says, the Government has no intention of allowing the computer systems under its control to be linked together to produce such a result.” There are three potential dangers, according to the White Paper: inaccurate, incomplete, or irrelevant information: the possibility of access to the information by the wrong people; and the use of the information in a different context to that foi which it was collected.

“Any of these dangers can come about either in-: tentionally or by accident, and properly designed safe-; guards must therefore pro-' vide against both even-i tualities,” the document; says. The Government will establish the watch-dog Data Protection Authority, and will set official standards governing the use of com- ( puters handling personal ( information. i Although the British Comiputer Society, which represents computer-makers and. (owners, has welcomed the ( 'White Paper, the National: • Council for Civil Liberties: says that it does not go farj (enough. “The number of computers (has doubled since the coun-i cil backed a private member’s bill to control the use :of personal information in I Parliament four years ago,”; (said an official. “The need' for firm safeguards is: (growing all the time.”