When Misinformation Can Get You Black Listed

[Casanundra]

After the article yesterday on the BBC about surveillence UK I went and read into the subject a little further because privacy laws interest me and I started wondering about its implication here in thailand.

"Experts estimate that information about the average working adult in the UK is stored on 700 databases. They include information about people's health records, credit checks and household details. If somebody wrongly is associated with a criminal record their career can be seriously damaged and there were severe consequences if people if information on database was out-of-date, inaccurate, or given to the wrong people, he said.

He pointed to the case of a father investigated by social services after his young daughter said he had "bonked" her - it turned out he had hit her on the head with an inflatable hammer.

While social services had closed the file, police and health authority records were not updated and said the man had been suspected of child abuse."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5172890.stm

The key thing that you should consider, especially in the aftermath from the John Kerr case is just how easy it is to get yourself blacklisted here and back home and we all know how the Thai authorities do their due dilligence on such matters when the only evidence they have is that someone called Tongrob "said so..."

Maybe it's time you went and found out where information about you is being stored and check that it is accurate

Edited November 3, 2006 by Casanundra

[billzant]

Dear Casanundra,

How are you?

It is frightening in the UK how much information is stored but the biggest fear is that you don't know what is being stored and cannot find out as an individual. Businesses can, they have hotlines and finances to do it

Then suddenly decisions are taken against you without any justification or comeback.

It is an horrendous form of corporate control that has gone beyond any form of legitimate civil liberties.

But if you asked me what I am talking about I cannot answer, and therefore people would call me a conspiracy nut

You cannot win.

Hope you are keeping well,

All the Best

Bill Z

[Scott]

I didn't know many people worked in the UK. I thought they were all on the dole?

(Just joking)

[Casanundra]

Consiracy theory or not there is so much information out there about people that it's scary and given someone's social security number and address I could do a lot of mischief by assuming someones identity.

At the moment the information is spread over 700 or so databases in the UK but should some bright spark ever get it into their head to centralise that data then it is likely that all the jig saw pieces will be put together to form the complete picture and that is what will happen when the central ID database kicks in.

Even though the USA came 2nd to the UK on privacy issues, the new Patriotic Act in the USA will soon change that and very soon everyones privacy from east to west and north to south no matter where you are in the world will end up somewhere for review and analysis in the name of fighting terrorism.

There are even cameras in Bangkok at strategic places now and new ones are creeping in daily although most people wouldn't notice them as its not something you look at here in thailand as there is too much eye candy around to make you look elsewhere

Edited November 3, 2006 by Casanundra

[dgoz]

It's also interesting to see that there are so many surveilance cameras in the UK that the average person is caught on film 300 times a day.(quote BBCnews)

The problem is that the people who have access to this footage may use it for the wrong reasons.

If you were a female cop and saw one of your friends husbands on camera walking hand in hand with another women would you tell your friend about it?

Australia is now the same.

George Orwell was right.

If you're still living in one of these countries I suggest it's time to leave.

[midas]

Hi Guys

I agree it is all starting to add up to a potentially scary scenario for the future...........

Imagine identity theft or deliberate misuse of information in China then -which was also mentioned

in yesterday's news article and combine that with another BBC news story from a couple of weeks ago regarding a huge demand for human organs for transplant surgery in China....?

You may have seen the article where they smuggled in a camera

at one of the big hospitals and where the doctor admitted ( not knowing about the camera ) they

use body parts from executed prisoners...............

The demand is growing so rapidly it's not beyond imagination that eventually they could use " tailor made " methodology to satisfy that demand - i.e. what if they set people up with using these huge

databases about personal information in order to select expendable subjects or to justify their execution so they can get the body parts ?

[GuestHouse]

If you're still living in one of these countries I suggest it's time to leave.

Not quite the same thing, but related.

I was the vicitim of ID theft while I was living in Thailand.

Long story short, while visiting the UK I stayed in a B&B for a week. The B&B owners theived or copied information from my briefcase and then set me up as an overseas director in their son's company (paying me on paper tens of thousands of pounds in fees - Their son's company was working doing work on oil refineries, so they even had me receiving extra fees for engineering consulting services).

To ensure I was still overseas they sent me semi regular emails asking me about how to plan a family holiday in Pattaya, next would be should they choose Chiang Mai etc.

I found all this out when I returned to the UK and had the tax man on my back. I took a full two years to sort it out and that only happened when I found out from companies house who the lawyer for the company I was suposed to be working for was (only a lawyer was listed and as a 'director' I was entiteled to be told who that was).

I then went around his office and demanded with threats of beating his brains out, to know who owned the company (Information that the tax man couldn't or woulln't be bothered to find out).

The lawyer threatened to call the police, to which I replied 'good, your involvement in tax evasion and ID theft will come out in court - you'll probably be struck off'

He wrote the name/address and telephone number on a piece of paper - The address gave them away, as it was the village I had stayed in during my only visit to the UK in over five years.

I took it to the police, got my tax records straightend out and the wife at the B&B got 12 months suspended sentence, the son got two years in the slammer.

Now the advice I was given (after the fact) was unless you have moved overseas permenently make sure that you declare yourself overseas to the tax man and keep him updated with your current address.

Beleive me there are f'ups in any system but malicious ID theft is far more likely (easy and far more dangerous because there is no end to the damage that can be done).

[meadish_sweetball]

I'd say the risk of falling victim to identity theft and misuse of information is larger here in Thailand, and is likely to increase rapidly with time as personal freedom here always seems to come second to the needs of the collective/state.

While the risk is certainly real, I know of very few examples of this happening in real life - none at all in my home country, in fact - despite the fact that Sweden has used personal registration/identification numbers used for official purposes since 1946.

[kmart]

George Orwell was right.

Yes he was. I just read the book again recently and its rather scary that a lot of the premise of that story is turning out to be true. Especially phony terrorism threats to justify massive intrusion of the state into people's personal lives.

Its the old Macchiavelli trick of keeping people scared like sheep so they flock to the shepherd. We (UK citizens) suffered massive loss of life and deprivation last century in keeping the twin political evils of Fascism and Communism at bay; just to let this totalitarian <deleted> in through the back door; whilst our press is asleep at the wheel / in cahoots to earn a peerage.

Big Brother indeed.

[Casanundra]

Identity Theft is rife, especially in the USA and reports are coming in torrents.

Criminals are known to have downloaded personal credit information of over 145,000 Americans from company called Choice Point.

Hackers took over one of Lexis Nexis' databases, gaining access to personal files of 32,000 people.

The Bank of America Corp lost computer data tapes that contained personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including members of the U.S. Senate.

A hacker downloaded the names, Social Security numbers, voicemail and SMS messages, and photos of 400 T-Mobile customers, and probably had access to all of their 16.3 million U.S. customers too.

In a separate incident, Paris Hilton's phone book and SMS messages were hacked and distributed on the Internet although I have to admit this latter one was well deserved ha ha!

[libya 115]

I left the U.K. in October 1999 and it was only by chance a few years later; I was told by my bank that I was flagged up in the U.K. as a defaulter in the U.K.

Offshore banks in the I-O-M still use U.K. credit reference agencies.

To cut a long story short, I was the victim of identity fraud directly from my last U.K. address, although I put this right and got a crime # etc. My U.K. credit files are still 'dirty' with just a brief summary of the identity theft I suffered.

I, and I suppose tens of thousands of people suffer from identity fraud. Fortunately I don't need/want credit now. But one day in the future I might have to return to the U.K.

and need some sort of credit check.

Buy a shredder, and if you are leaving the U.K. for the L.O.S. be sure to inform every financial organisation you have dealings with (even savings accounts) and non-credit companies and there is some kind of way you can 'leave' the electoral register etc.

[dogblower]

When I left my native country, I thought it would only be for a year, but I filed a final tax return and had myself removed from the electoral roll anyway. 20 years on and I still haven't been back, so it turns out to have been a wise precaution.

[guardian]

A couple of you have so far mentioned your experience with identity theft. Just wondering whether these #$!@% thieves were locals or foreigners in that country?

[PeaceBlondie]

I'm not sure how much this helps me, but I use a service where my main credit card company charges me US$5 per month to keep track of fraud and my credit rating, including any changes in the reports. I still keep a US address because I wouldn't get credit cards without it, or be able to charge things over the internet without it. Of course, that's risky, too.

I almost had a fraudulent PayPal charge for $600 this year, but fortunately I had closed my PayPal account because they are incompetent.