Big Brother Watch

Daniel Hamilton on The Commentator: If the LulzSec hackers really have got the UK Census, we're in big trouble

This morning, the infamous online hacking group LulzSec issued a statement claiming to have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census database. Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton has written an piece for The Commentator responding to the news:

"The claims this morning from increasingly infamous hacking group LulzSec that they have obtained a copy of the entire 2011 Census are profoundly concerning.

"They come, however, as no surprise to Big Brother Watch who have for months been warning the public about the risks of this information falling into the wrong hands.

"If these rumours are proved to be correct, it will demonstrate that each and every one of the commitments made by the Office of the National Statistics about the safety and security of their databases was entirely bogus."

Click here to read - and comment on - the full piece.

Man arrested after claims of Census data theft appear on the internet

After a hacking group claimed earlier today that they have stolen the date from the 2011 Census, a 19-year-old believed to be a member of the group has been arrested in Essex. He has been named as Ryan Clearly and is currently in custody on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act offences.

The group, known as LulzSec, have claimed responsibility for a wide range of recent attacks including Sony, the NHS, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the CIA all in the last two months.

The following statement appeared on the internet this morning from the group:

"Greetings Internets,

We have blissfully obtained records of every single citizen who gave their records to the security-illiterate UK government for the 2011 census.

We're keeping them under lock and key though... so don't worry about your privacy (...until we finish re-formatting them for release).

Myself and the rest of my Lulz shipmates will then embark upon a trip to ThePirateBay with our beautiful records for your viewing pleasure!”

Big Brother Watch has campaigned strongly against the Census this year for a variety of reasons, primarily the intrusive lines of questioning and the danger of the data being lost or stolen. If this threat is true and the personal information of millions of people is released on the internet it will be a hammer blow to both Lockheed Martin and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS have released this statement:

“We are aware of the suggestion that census data has been accessed. We are working with our security advisers and contractors to establish whether there is any substance to this”

“The 2011 Census places the highest priority on maintaining the security of personal data. At this stage we have no evidence to suggest that any such compromise has occurred.”

So far no evidence has been provided to confirm the data was stolen and we hope that the claims are false, but if this amount of personal information has been hacked it only serves to highlight the folly of creating such a gargantuan database in the first place.

Big Brother Watch Director Daniel Hamilton has written for The Commentator about the possible consequences. Click here for the article.

UPDATE: The supposedly official Twitter account of LulzSec @LulzSec has denied any involvement in the statement or theft of Census data.

Census data stolen, hacked, released..?

And so it begins. A credible boast from a repeat hacker that the data from Census 2011 has been leaked and is going to be released.

Predictable - perhaps inevitable - but rather faster than one might have expected.

Developing...

By Alex Deane

Hat tip: WF

Census 2011: Chaos behind the scenes

That every-doughty defender of personal privacy and freedom Mark Wallace has, not for the first time, turned in a first rate blog post about the chaos behind the scenes at the 2011 Census HQ.

In a series of observations leaked to Mark by an employee of the Office of National Statistics, he lifts the list on the "absolutely useless" training given to the army of 35,000 Census-enforcers and the "disastrous" management structure and computer systems underpinning the operation. 

Read his must-see post here.

The Census: Less relevant every second?

Over at Crash Bang Wallace, there's a brilliant blog post which detonates the myths propagated by the Office of National Statistics about the importance of the Census for establishing an accurate picture of the UK's demographic make-up.

Do take a look at the full post by clicking here.

Census descends into farce

The 2011 Census descended further into farce today as it was revealed that more than 555,000 people have rung the census helpline after having difficulties understanding the form. A large proportion of the complaints related to the website, which times-out after 10 minutes of inactivity meaning all unsaved answers are lost. An ONS spokesman said:

“Apparently what has been happening is people are filling in the form online and they are going away to make a cup  of tea or going to the loo but when  they do, they are not pressing the 'save and come back later' button.”

Some web users complained that they were unable to navigate back to the previous page to change their answers. People in England were further confused by question 17, which reads “This question is intentionally left blank.” The question relates to the Welsh language, so it is only printed on forms in Wales.

The census bosses were forced to apologise to residents in Warfield Park, Bracknell after 500 homes were missed off the address list. Volunteers hand delivered the census forms on Sunday, when they were due to be filled in. Cherry Bluett, the area manager said:

“I think we just made a mistake and the first thing I want to do is apologise to the people of Warfield Park that their questionnaires didn't arrive in the post when the rest of Berkshire had their questionnaires delivered”

One resident, Ivy Prowse expressed her thoughts:

"It becomes a joke doesn't it, that means that about 1,000 people have been left out of a census which I think is important.”

After the exorbitant cost and numerous problems, we can only hope that this is the last ever census. By 2021 the idea of sending 26 million forms out to every single address in the country by post will seem even more ridiculous than it does now.

Heather Brooke on the Census

Keen followers of British politics will be very familiar with the name 'Heather Brooke'; the lady whose dogged investigations into MP's expenses caused a metaphorical earthquake quite unlike anything in recent political history.

Well, aside from campaigning for reform of Parliamentary expenses, she is also an outspoken opponent of the 2011 Census and has recorded a video outlining her reasons for opposing it for the Daily Politics. 

Sadly, the BBC website won't allow us to embed the video on the Big Brother Watch blog, so you'll have to click here to view her pearls of wisdom...

Census 'suffragette' protest in Parliament!

By Matt Peterkin

Last night I went out for dinner in central London with some friends. One of the topics of conversation was what to do about the Census. None of us like it, but we didn’t want to break the law by refusing to do it either. For all of us it was a huge dilemma.

As I trudged down Whitehall to get my bus home an idea dawned on me. The census requires you to list wherever you slept on Sunday night as your address, even if you don’t live there. So why don’t I follow the lead of the famous suffragette Emily Davidson and sleep in the Houses of Parliament?

I have a pass for the building so it wouldn’t be too hard to enter the building, plus I wanted to catch up on some work before Monday. So I walked up to the gate, told the Police Officer I was going to do some late night work (which was true), and I was in. After sending some emails I bedded down in my arm chair and began my ‘slumber protest’.

By now you’re probably asking two questions: what does he have against the census and why choose to sleep in parliament. In the case of the former, Big Brother Watch has spent a huge amount of time explaining why the census is a bad idea so I don’t plan to add too much to that. But I will say it costs £500m to give away private information to an unspecified group of government officials. Not a good idea in my book.On the specifics of sleeping in Parliament, firstly it isn’t my home and the Office of National Statistics cannot do any analysis on my living conditions, because will say nothing about it. If I have to fill out the form, and I will try to avoid it, I want the information to be honest but also meaningless. No government official can ascertain anything useful about my residential status from this act.

Secondly in the days of Emily Davidson the biggest issue facing us was the lack of rights for women. She wanted to prove that it was easier to live in Parliament than it was to get elected to it. I can’t pretend my motives are so worthy but I can say that I think the overbearing state – of whichever party – is a huge risk to this country and must be stopped. If someone is so worried about the intrusive state that they sleep in Parliament on Census night then we can all see how serious this issue has become.

The big question now is what happens next. The answer is that I have no idea. Legally speaking I am now obliged to fill out the census listing my address as “House of Commons, Palace of Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA” but I’m still trying to avoid doing the form at all. I suppose some people will be annoyed that I did it, however most will dismiss this for what it is: a token gesture. I may get into trouble, though I doubt any senior officers of the house really care what I do.

My hope is that some people reading this sit down and think about whether we should ever repeat this process. Whatever you think of me I just don’t want to spend £500m so that someone in Whitehall can garner titillation from the personal data of every man, woman and child in the country. If sleeping in Parliament helps to derail that process then it was worth the aches and pains that resulted.

Concerns over census confidentiality gather pace

On the cover of the 2011 Census form, the Office of National Statistics claims:

“Your personal information is protected by law. Census information is kept confidential for 100 years”

However, an expert on privacy has discovered that there are a number of circumstances where the data can be disclosed. Chris Pounder from Amberhawk, a privacy training provider, points to section 39(4) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. This states that the ONS can disclose confidential data if the disclosure is:

"made for the purposes of a criminal investigation"; "made in pursuance of an order of a court"; or "made to an approved researcher”, along with six other stipulations.

Although the ONS can claim they have no intention of utilising this clause, the fact that it is possible means a change in personnel could lead to a change in policy, and the disclosure of data which the populace have been led to believe is completely secure. Mr. Pounder has suggested that the ONS should follow the lead of the Department of Children, Schools & Families, which demanded the removal of a similar clause in 2009. He said:

“Any failure to make this necessary legislative change, or to make a statement concerning the application of section 39(4), provides evidence that the Government are not prepared to commit itself to ensuring the confidentiality of the 2011 Census.”

Government ministers should move quickly to ensure this Act cannot be applied to the Census, or the claim of total privacy for 100 years will be an empty promise. The Protection of Freedoms Bill, which is currently being debated in parliament, could be used to resolve this rapidly. If not, people have yet another reason not to fill in the already intrusive, expansive and expensive form.

Alex Deane: Why I won't be completing the Census

Over on ConservativeHome, former Big Brother Watch Director Alex Deane has written a must-read article outlining the reasons he will not be completing the 2011 census.

Aside from the arguments the BBW team have made over the last few weeks about the overly invasive aspects the 32-page form, Alex says:

"I have never broken the law before, so forgive me for overthinking it - there are certain parallels that come to mind. Why can't I bring myself to complete and sign this dreadful nonsense, even though there's no real harm that will come to me personally if I do, and the avoidance of potential pain is assured if I do? Because it symbolises all that's wrong with modern Britain, and I don't want to go along with it. Because it is my name. Because I cannot have another in my life"

You can view the full post - which is well worth reading - here.

The first census replies come flooding in...

I'm sure the Office of National Statistics will be pleased with that one...

Hat-tip: CL

Census 2011: Where do you work?

As you might have heard, the first batch of 2011 census forms have today begun dropping onto the doormats of millions of homes across the UK.

At Big Brother Watch, we have a clear position on the census: we believe it is both highly intrusive and a monumental waste of time and money.  While the fact the public will be questioned on the type of central heating they have and the religion they practice has been widely publicised, the questions relating to an individual's workplace have received far less airtime.

According to a BBW supporter in Herefordshire, the Office of National Statistics has asked businesses to ensure that their employees are aware of the post code of their workplace in order that "transport planning and other strategic decisions" can be made by central government. Would it not be possible to ascertain this information from examining traffic flows at peak times, both on public and private transport modes?

If a census is to be taken, it should be concerned with the simplest of possible matters - chiefly, establishing the UK's national population and where it has grown in recent years.  To ask the public to name their employer and list the location in which they are employed is nothing more than unnecessary intrusion into personal privacy.

Philip Johnston demolishes Census 2011

Over the past 48 hours, the Big Brother Watch has been consumed by the 2011 census - or rather our opposition to it.

Philip Johnston, in his excellent column for the Daily Telegraph, has done an excellent job of explaining the case against this expensive piece of Whitehall curtain-twiching.

"The census has become far more than a simple reckoning of the size of the population and is now inquisitive to the point of prying. We will be required by law in March to provide more than 40 pieces of personal information, including religious belief and ethnic background. Questions about income and sexuality were originally proposed for inclusion but dropped as too nosey. Even so, there is a section to say whether you are in a civil partnership"

Do take a look.

Big Brother Watch statement on the 2011 census

Commenting on the launch of the 2011 census this morning, Daniel Hamilton, Campaign Director of the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch said:

"At 32 pages, the census includes intrusive questions on your proficiency in English, your health, when you last worked, the identities of your overnight guests and the type of central heating you have.  The government has no need – and no right – to know this information about you.

"This census is a monumental waste of time and money.  A large number of the questions duplicate data already held by the authorities on databases such as the electoral register, school records, tax returns and GP information.

"It also makes the entirely hollow but nevertheless bullying threat of fines of £1,000 for non-compliance.

"Back in 2001, 3 million people refused to comply.  Given that there were fewer than 100 prosecutions for not filling the census in, it's clear that  non-compliance comes pretty much entirely without repercussions.

"Last time, 390,000 people declared their religion as Jedi.  There's no reason to think people will take the census any more seriously this year".

Please direct all media calls to Daniel Hamilton on 07810 785924.

Daniel Hamilton on the Today programme discussing the 2011 census