The UK Government holds more data on citizens than it needs to, according to members of the Chartered Institute for IT (the British Computer Society).
Nudging two-thirds (61%) of the 400 IT professional members questioned said the state held more data on citizens than necessary. Only 17% believed that citizen’s rights were adequately protected by the current regulations.
The UK ranked fourth, behind the rest of the EU, the US and Australia in its perceived openness of making data widely available.
Despite the negative attitude to the government’s powers, members felt that the public weren’t aware about their rights to see data or saw it as an election issue. Only 41% believed people understood the value of personal data and only 10% felt people understood what their data rights were.
