06 Feb 2012
If it weren’t so sickening it’d be funny: how many kicks in the teeth for the taxpayer (Hospital faces £375,000 ICO fine after data sold on eBay)?
Kicking #1: ordinary taxpayers have their data compromised by the NHS, a public-sector organisation.
Kicking #2: the NHS gets fined by a public-sector quango for the data breach. The taxpayer picks up the bill.
Kicking #3: hospital services deteriorate as vital cash is lost to fines. Maybe someone dies because doctors and nurses are being laid off.
Kicking #4: the taxpayer picks up two sets of legal bills as the government in effect sues itself.
The ICO’s decision to “focus on the health and criminal justice sectors” adds up to a decision to back off industry, the one place that might be able to afford to pay the fines.
Jamal Housseini
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