Police handed files from Operation Motorman, which found 3,522 suspected cases of media having illegal access to records
The Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed it has passed to police the files of an investigation carried out five years ago into the sale of private information to journalists.
The transfer of the files, from Operation Motorman, a 2006 inquiry into the use of private investigators by newspapers, which documented the practices of Stephen Whittamore and associates, marks the widening of the phone hacking inquiry to the broader issue of paying for confidential information.
The files were the basis for the information commissioner's report, in 2006, entitled What Price Privacy Now?, which identified 3,522 occasions when 305 journalists requested information that the commission believed was likely to have been obtained illegally.
The Daily Mail topped its list, with 952 identified transactions, followed by the Sunday People with 802 and Daily Mirror with 681. The Observer, published by Guardian News & Media, was further down the list, with four journalists said to have accessed information on 103 occasions.
The commissioner's office has not established that each piece of information was illegally obtained. But it has focused on information, such as car registrations and mobile phone numbers, which are often all but impossible to obtain without "blagging" or similar practices.
The commissioner's office said some of the data on the list could have been collected legally but the majority was "likely to have been obtained in violation of the Data Protection Act".
News organisations were not given a chance to see the list before publication to establish whether there was a public interest defence to any breach of the act.
Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, warned this week that the "extensive illegal trade" of public information was a wider problem than phone hacking. "Clearly the selling of confidential personal information is not a victimless crime. It can be extremely distressing and potentially damaging to those involved. You only have to look at the allegations of phone hacking, involving the mobile phone of Milly Dowler, to see the damage that can be caused by the theft of someone's personal information."
Details obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that hundreds of workers in the public sector might have been found guilty of inappropriately accessing personal records but did not face prosecution or dismissal.
Research by the lobbyists Big Brother Watch shows that between 2007 and 2010, 904 police officers and staff across Britain were subject to internal disciplinary offences for breaches of the Data Protection Act, which governs access to personal information. Of these cases, only 98 led to the dismissal of the person involved.
"Our investigation shows that not only have police employees been found to have run background records checks on friends and possible partners, but some have been convicted for passing sensitive information to criminal gangs and drug dealers," said Daniel Hamilton, the director of Big Brother Watch. "This is at best hugely intrusive and at worse downright dangerous. Police forces must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to this kind of behaviour. Those found guilty of abusing their position should be sacked on the spot."
Information obtained by the Guardian through the FoI Act suggests that benefits records could have been the subject of extensive trading, with more than 100 individuals disciplined for "gross" violations still in post.
More than 500 Jobcentre Plus staff have been disciplined for improper access, since 2009, to the personal records of job seekers and benefits claimants.
The offences include incidents where staff accessed sensitive information with the intent of passing it to third parties, as well as staff browsing material for personal interest. The records include 137 gross violations, defined as "serious breach of contractual terms … which makes any further working relationship and trust impossible". Only 27 staff lost their jobs.
Data available to Jobcentre Plus staff include names, birth dates, addresses, and national insurance details, as well as benefits claimed, career and qualification histories, and possibly health information.
The Department of Work and Pensions, which oversees Jobcentre Plus, was unable to say how many of its 512 data breaches involved information being passed to third parties, but stated: "With over 100,000 staff the relatively small number of those who misuse our computer systems are always disciplined, and those who commit serious breaches will be dismissed."
--
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-operation-motorman-files
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment