Data Protection Day means time to end 'Big Brother Britain'

11.03.00am GMT Wed 28th Jan 2009

Today marks European Data Protection day, and London's Liberal Democrat MEP and European justice & human rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford said:

"This celebration of data protection comes as Britain's Labour government's launches its most audacious assault to date on our privacy, outrageous even by its own breathtaking standards. In a new Bill before Parliament, it proposes to allow ministers to share our personal data with anyone they want to, at home or abroad. Liberal Democrats will fight this tooth and nail."

"The record under Labour has been appalling, from the loss of millions of bank account details of parents claiming child benefit, to the missing MI5 laptops, to a huge expansion of state snooping powers. The mass collection and storage of our private data is a huge risk to our personal security."

"The European Court of Human Rights recently condemned the UK's storage of fingerprints and DNA of innocent individuals as a breach of the privacy provisions of the European Convention of Human Rights which 'could not be regarded as necessary in democratic society'. Yet the Labour government has been championing their own voracious appetite for personal information as a model across the EU."

"As taxpayers we cannot afford Gordon Brown's hugely expensive ID cards scheme, especially now. But he must be deluded if he expects us to have confidence that Whitehall will keep it safe. It's time to put an end ID cards and to big brother Britain."