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UK must balance surveillance and data collection with privacy: Lords committee

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Britain's House of Lords Constitution Committee released a report Friday saying that the country's use of widespread video surveillance and personal data collection pose a threat to citizens' privacy and freedom. The committee said that while such surveillance and data collection could serve legitimate law-enforcement purposes, those interests should be balanced against privacy concerns, including Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The committee also issued specific recommendations that DNA data on individuals be consolidated to the National DNA Database, and that closed-circuit television surveillance only be used under strict oversight and where it has been shown to be effective. In February 2008, the UK Home Office said that the government has no plans to create a compulsory DNA database for British citizens. Rights groups have criticized the National DNA Database for retaining information on criminal suspects after they are found innocent, and for displaying a racial bias against minorities. In September 2007, UK rights group Liberty  released a report  arguing that the government was endangering the privacy of law-abiding Britons by increasingly using mass surveillance to profile people rather than targeting individual criminal suspects using intelligence-led policing.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).