Anyone else making a link between the uproar when UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith revealed plans for private businesses like chemists and photo shops to record fingerprints and biometric data for the proposed national identity card scheme, and the news now that T-Mobile UK employees have been caught selling consumer data to outsiders?
Data is valuable, and valuable things are a target for people to try and obtain via nefarious means. And while I’m sure the employees of my local chemists are doubtless wonderful people, I’m not sure they’re paid and monitored enough to ensure they could never be tempted to accidentally pass on some details at some point.
As data becomes increasingly valuable, companies need to ensure they meet all legal regulations and ethical guidelines, and also think about who has access to the data, and for what reason. And whether or not they should be trying to put those people away from temptation in some way.
Or just make the move towards VRM and let me look after my own data.