UK behind the EU on data sharing - Too much fear of government

By Dave Murray @ Monday, July 14, 2008 9:30 AM

Section - Business/Security

Analyst firm Detica Group has warned that UK authorities are falling behind the rest of Europe when it comes to sharing data.

In its report Benchmarking ICT , use among general practitioners in Europe, European Commission/Empirica, April 2008, Detica said that the UK is apparently so terrified of identity theft and fears that Governments can't safeguarding privacy means the UK is now falling behind Europe in cross-border sharing of personal information.

Anthony Golledge, from Detica’s Government division, said that with Europe being a free labour market, data needed to be equally mobile and travel with people across borders. However the UK is so held up by public debate on such matters and concerns over data protection, which means that information sharing initiatives are seen as threats to our personal privacy.

The UK needed to open up its benefits databases and healthcare records systems. Otherwise UK citizens will find it more difficult to get public services in Europe to which they are entitled, Golledge said. Information sharing between these databases and IT systems helps us close the loopholes that fraudsters can exploit to use public services like the NHS for free.

He said that information across borders to improve services and spot the digital footprints that are strong indicators of fraud or abuse will involve making some trade-offs between security and privacy, Golledge added. X