Data protection - A pressing issue we can’t ignore

The management, the protection or the sharing of information gathered by the State or private companies on individuals, and that person’s right to easily access that information, are hardly issues that have set current election campaigns alight.

Indeed, it is hard to recall any politician persistently arguing that the increasingly important right of people to see files held online about them is an issue that needs immediate and forceful action. It seems that the debate — once again — is shaped by the attitude that imagines any demand from citizens or customers a passing and tiresome intrusion to be worn down by inaction.

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall warned last week that some sectors of the public service still refused to embrace current realities around sharing information. He did, however, note some progress had been made but that much more needs to be done, and suggested that more urgency needs to be brought to advancing and championing openness in our public service.

Mr Tyndall’s remarks were echoed yesterday by retiring Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes when he warned that action is needed to improve how the public service protects personal data on citizens before such action is triggered by the next “crisis” like the recent discovery of illegally made tapes at Garda stations. Speaking yesterday, as he published his annual report, Mr Hawkes cited an unacceptable breach of security when a man’s personal data was accessed by his estranged wife who worked for the Department of Social Protection.

Mr Hawkes also pointed to what he described as less than satisfactory commitment on behalf of many senior managers to properly protect personal information in their possession. Once again, it seems, the habits of the past are unable to match the changing, more demanding requirements of today.

It may not be stretching it too far to suggest that the indifference, the out-of-touch attitudes at the root of this overly lax administration are the very traits that have done so much to destroy the credibility of An Garda Síochána. Indeed, had information been shared properly the scandal surrounding Castleblayney Garda Station might not have culminated in a woman’s murder in Limerick.

As technology advances ever further, it will play a far greater role in how citizens interact with the State and with business. Ever greater quantities of information, and ever deeper information, will be held electronically. This means a way of sharing this information easily will have to be found. Those responsible for managing State resources and semi-state companies, not to mention businesses, will undoubtedly oppose this evolution because of the cost implications, but they have already enjoyed the benefits brought by advancing technology. Now it is time for citizens to have, at home, easy keyboard access to all of the information held on line about them. There is an air of inevitability around that clear, empowering idea, so the sooner it becomes an objective, the sooner it will become a reality.