Would you have any problem with your data being shared across government departments

Rabidlamb

Data protection is an issue but if you'd nothing to hide would you mind if civil servants could view your PAYE, welfare claims, car reg, criminal records etc. on one centralised database, all found under your PPS number.
The downsides lie in the nature of people to be easily corrupted & use/sell the data for nefarious means.
There is also a big brother element which is unsettling.
The major upsides would be the reduction in welfare fraud, instant means testing, up to date electoral register, immediate census figures, reduction in black economy & probably a load I haven't thought of.

Yes, nosey civil servants will invade privacy, ala Dolores McNamara, but I believe the good outweighs the bad & the benefits are huge.

old_aussie

No, they can all have a good laugh at my data

Nothingbetter2d

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Data protection is an issue but if you'd nothing to hide would you mind if civil servants could view your PAYE, welfare claims, car reg, criminal records etc. on one centralised database, all found under your PPS number.
The downsides lie in the nature of people to be easily corrupted & use/sell the data for nefarious means.
There is also a big brother element which is unsettling.
The major upsides would be the reduction in welfare fraud, instant means testing, up to date electoral register, immediate census figures, reduction in black economy & probably a load I haven't thought of.

Yes, nosey civil servants will invade privacy, ala Dolores McNamara, but I believe the good outweighs the bad & the benefits are huge.

the bigesst problem i see with it is all it takes is one dodgy employee and all your personal info is sold to dubious people. so no its a bad idea

Seachmall

I see the government as one entity. If one department has data on me I assume the others have access to it anyway, so I don't particularly care if they share it or not.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I wouldnt mind in the slightest/

the groutch

Rabidlamb wrote: »

The major upsides would be the reduction in welfare fraud.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/279/799/76b.gif

Bits_n_Bobs

Soon as they tell me exactly what they are up to in Nama, set up a proper Freedom of Information system and generally start sharing all the ****e that they are getting up to, they can share my data amongst each other.

Until then - no

megaten

Yes, I don't see why personal information should be shared anymore than necessary. If it is needed I'd like that all requests for personal details between departments be recorded in case of misuse.

donalg1

No I wouldnt mind at all, in fact they should be doing it as it would save a lot of time and hassle going between Govt Departments for information that could all be held on one database and linked to my PPS Number.

smash

Rabidlamb wrote: »

The major upsides would be the reduction in welfare fraud, instant means testing

How?

Skanger 1 has baby and claims free house and single others allowance and is not working. Skanger 2 is the father and his name is not on birth cert etc. His address for tax purpose, car insurance etc is still at his parents family home. Now there is no way the centralised system could cop that. You'd still need an investigator.

Borderfox

At present for me I couldnt trust the government to do this correctly and the cost to centralise everything would as usual be huge.

Rabidlamb

smash wrote: »

How?

Skanger 1 has baby and claims free house and single others allowance and is not working. Skanger 2 is the father and his name is not on birth cert etc. His address for tax purpose, car insurance etc is still at his parents family home. Now there is no way the centralised system could cop that. You'd still need an investigator.

Yes, but if Skanger 2 claims a full weeks social while revenue records earnings then alarm bells will go off.
If he tries to claim rent allowance while living with his parents that will be flagged too.

Linoge

smash wrote: »

How?

Skanger 1 has baby and claims free house and single others allowance and is not working. Skanger 2 is the father and his name is not on birth cert etc. His address for tax purpose, car insurance etc is still at his parents family home. Now there is no way the centralised system could cop that. You'd still need an investigator.

But it would make it harder. If he was living at home he couldn't claim rent allowance on top etc

prinz

That's how it should be done.

Ellis Dee

On a few conditions: 1) that the country has a Data Protection Ombudsman with adequate staff and real powers. 2) That all public servants are liable for their official actions (and possible gross negligence) under criminal law. 3) That trustworthiness and honesty break out on a wide scale in Ireland.:)

The first two could be done, perhaps with some assistance from countries, like the Nordic ones, that already have such systems in place.;)

Number 3 might be a bit more difficult to achieve.:D

ejmaztec

They're obviously a lot more stupid than I gave them credit for, being as they didn't decide to share information the moment they got their hands on computers.

A stuffed gerbil would have realised that it was the thing to do.

inforfun

Some things i find rather unbelievable that they are not linked.
For example car ownership database and motortax database.

Register a car in your name? Ok, here is your motor tax bill.

Run_to_da_hills

I would have more concern about this in the UK or US than I would have in Ireland at present. People get arrested in these countries over stupid misreinterpred comments made on Twitter and other social media sites.

smash

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Yes, but if Skanger 2 claims a full weeks social while revenue records earnings then alarm bells will go off.
If he tries to claim rent allowance while living with his parents that will be flagged too.

But these are things that should happen automatically anyway without the need for totally shared systems.

Statistician

Rabidlamb wrote: »

Data protection is an issue but if you'd nothing to hide

I hate this crap nohing to hide, nothing to worry about it really does make me feel like vomiting over my keyboard. Who came up with this gem?

Tomorrow I won't bother wearing any clothes. I have nothing to hide after all. I'll also leave my front door open so the neighbours can have a snoop around my house.

Seachmall

Statistician wrote: »

I hate this crap nohing to hide, nothing to worry about it really does make me feel like vomiting over my keyboard. Who came up with this gem?

Tomorrow I won't bother wearing any clothes. I have nothing to hide after all. I'll also leave my front door open so the neighbours can have a snoop around my house.

People who have nothing to hide get very offended when I put cameras in their toilets.

Makes no sense

Thoie

I wouldn't see the need for everything to be shared randomly, but no problem with sensible sharing.

For example, if Revenue and Social Welfare shared info, it would make things easier on both sides, and for the customer. I can't see why car ownership details would be useful to those departments.

Likewise, sharing medical information across medical departments/hospitals would make sense, but the hospital doesn't need to know my car details either.

Driving license and car registration might work together (though can't see any current need for it).

martingriff

Seachmall wrote: »

I see the government as one entity. If one department has data on me I assume the others have access to it anyway, so I don't particularly care if they share it or not.

That is not the case due to data protection. Every department is its own business for want of a better word.

Jester252

I not might as long it reduces the number of forms that I have to fill

Mackman

Thoie wrote: »

I wouldn't see the need for everything to be shared randomly, but no problem with sensible sharing.

For example, if Revenue and Social Welfare shared info, it would make things easier on both sides, and for the customer. I can't see why car ownership details would be useful to those departments.

Likewise, sharing medical information across medical departments/hospitals would make sense, but the hospital doesn't need to know my car details either.

Driving license and car registration might work together (though can't see any current need for it).

It would make certain things a lot quicker if this was the case.

I cant understand why they dont do it, oh wait, thats right, because it makes sense

Pushtrak

I'd rather they had my anecdotes. Can't get data from that.

paddyandy

Everything on my pcs and tech. is well secured but my accs. in aib and irish perm i would worry about if it got out .I wonder how good the security is and i've no certainty .How well are people vetted?

Biggins

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

the bigesst problem i see with it is all it takes is one dodgy employee and all your personal info is sold to dubious people. so no its a bad idea

When the Irish woman that won the European lotto - how many civil servants went looking into her life and details through their networks?
A lot if I remember right. There was some serious trouble over it soon thereafter.

Making that task easier is not a good thing.
(Any rag newspaper reporter will be rubbing their hands in glee with things been made easier to dig up - and an unscrupulousness other person will be looking to make a few bob by passing leaked tips/info to papers.)

Such info should only be accessible so widely if necessary, by court judged order and THEN by the Gardi or other investigation body.

Gummy Panda

Yes I would. I wouldn't want someone having access to data that isn't relevant to their department.

hondasam

Rabidlamb wrote: »

The downsides lie in the nature of people to be easily corrupted & use/sell the data for nefarious means.

Civil servants have access to all this information now and I have not heard of anyone selling information on people.

I would not be in favour of one centralised database.

christmas2012

I would not be comfortable with our government handling such data,remember the break ins to electric companies holding data on their customers?

I wouldnt have confidence in them whatsover..

The whole idea its on one PPS number would freak me out as what if somebody stole it on me,or stole it off the civil etc..I would be worried

Although i do see it is a good idea to have all your information accessible to cut out fraud etc..

skinny90

Data protection and internet/online don't go well together...I know a fair few hackers(both Irish and Spanish) who have worked for the banks and Interpol and basically any info that's made online in some form can be accessed

Smidge

Do not agree with sharing data across departments. Quite frankly I don't have enough faith in the ability of public servants to handle information in a secure manner, this is from personal experience btw