If you don't want every single piece of information about you that is held by your GP to be transferred to NHS Digital for undisclosed "research" purposes you have until the 23rd of June to opt-out.
www.theregister.com/2021/05/13/nhs_data_grab/
Yes, NHS Digital - the folks who brought you the widely acclaimed Test & Trace App and admitted that the data collected would be sold to anyone who wanted it.
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The same report says:
NHS Digital said names and addresses, written notes, images, letters, and documents would not be collected.
If the data is anonymous is there a worry?
I've no agenda here, I merely ask the question.
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A material part of why test and trace was less than effective is the UK (justifiable or not) paranoia about privacy and use/security of personal data.
Other countries with a very much better covid outcome had no problem in integrating different data feeds - including testing, tracking via mobile technology, credit/debit card use, rail tickets, plane tickets, and even (AIUI) face recognition software.
We have paid a price for denying the state the information to act on our behalf. Whether the price is worth paying is a matter of opinion.
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The reasons why the Test & Trace APP failed was because the script kiddies at NHS Digital:
1) Didn't bother about people's privacy concerns. The warnings were there but they went ahead anyway despite similarly intrusive Apps failing because of low takeup. Dismissing those concerns as paranoia simply ignores why people might not want the state peering over their shoulder 24hrs a day.
2) Didn't bother to read the £$^ing Android and iOS documentation before they started. Both Google and Apple had issued statements saying that they were plugging the Bluetooth security and privacy hole. It was in a note to developers before the CV-19 crisis began.
3) Wanted to collect more data than was strictly necessary and monetise it by selling it to anyone who would pay for it.
They were supposed to deliver an effective App to help the fight against CV-19. Instead of doing that ONE thing quickly with help from the developers of the OS they went their own way and wasted time embellishing it with superfluous unsupported carp that doomed it to failure.
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>> The reasons why the Test & Trace APP failed was because the script kiddies at
>> NHS Digital:................
Pretty fair summary.
But I think there's also another side.
In Chile we must carry photo ID, and that ID carries a number which is also our passport number, driving licence number, NI Number etc. etc.
Our legal, medical, financial, car insurance, life assurance etc. (and anything else you can think of) records are tied to that number. Including, even, supermarket loyalty cards.
By law the data may not be sold, though there are circumstances under which it may be shared. Mostly though our RUN is a common & unique DB identifier used in many disparate databases.
Having said that, I am not aware of any exploitation, be it commercial or State, that takes uncomfortable advantage of it.
I'm not really sure what the BRits, and others, are scared of.
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I am of the view that it is highly desirable to look at the data in aggregate. There is a wealth of information to be mined from a dataset of this type, and the bigger the dataset the more valuable it becomes. If it could cross tabulates with additional information, particularly genetic, then this would be a huge asset.
Of course there are privacy concerns, I don’t see that these are an6 greater than they already are, just different. Data of this quality would have significant commercial value. Why not sell the output of the analysis? Would this not be a way of contributing to the NHS budget, and why would individuals object? With obvious potential for health gains then it would be irresponsible not to explore this.
Iceland has shown the way here, for example with the discovery of a genetic linkage to schizophrenia, new treatments for asthma being developed and significant advances in the understanding of the genetic basis for dozens of diseases.
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NHS Digital Data Slurp - Bromptonaut
