Author Archives: James Baker

James Baker

Opinion: The case for increased surveillance hasn’t been made

By James Baker | Thu 13th December 2012 - 12:43 pm

At the heart of the draft Communications Bill is a drive to make it easier for a range of officials to access information about people’s communications.  The Home Office maintains that officals need this push-button surveillance in order to help fight emotive crimes such as terrorism and paedophiles.

Despite widespread criticisms of the bill put forward by the Home Office to achieve those ends, most politicians appear to be uncritically accepting their underlying premise – that officials need to be granted more powers to snoop on citizens. Just take for instace Clegg’s statement on the bill:
“They were very clear that …

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James Baker

The Independent View: Selling our NHS data is not putting us in control of our health records

By James Baker | Mon 5th December 2011 - 2:55 pm

Back in 2010 there was a wave of optimism amongst civil liberties campaigners, especially those of us concerned with protecting privacy from an over-bearing database state. Not only did the coalition agreement set out a promise to scrap ID cards and its associated population register, there were other promises too: “We will end the storage of internet and email records without good reason” and then on page 25 of the coalition agreement the statement that “We will put patients in charge of making decisions about their care, including control of their health records”.

In our briefing document ‘Privacy Under Threat’ …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Tagged and | 25 Comments
James Baker

The Independent View: The bigger picture on privacy

By James Baker | Sat 16th July 2011 - 1:35 pm

Amongst the frenzy of the phone hacking scandal Philip Virgo has recalled operation Motorman. This investigation by the Information Commissioner and follow-up report What Price Privacy Now studies and provides details of the illegal trade in personal private information. Rather than being limited to the phone hacking scandal, the report suggests this trade was widespread between newspapers, private investigators and corrupt officials.

This report was presented to the previous government that failed to act upon it and halt the illegal trade in personal information. It is with unfortunate irony that members of that previous government including Lord Prescott …

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James Baker

The Independent View: action is needed to keep census data confidential

By James Baker | Mon 28th February 2011 - 1:41 pm

So far Lib Dem voice has seen two opposing points of view on the census, one from Merlene Emerson who explains why she believes the census is important, and another from Simon Beard who explains why as a Quaker he will be objecting to it on the moral grounds of Lockheed Martin’s involvement.

NO2ID appreciates why some people have concerns regarding the involvement of an arms company in the census. However as a single issue campaign our concern is with the immediate privacy threat the census poses to everyone. We have therefore taken it upon …

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments



Recent Comments

  • User AvatarEvan Harris 20th May - 8:10am
    An excellent column from Roy Greenslade. The Leveson-compliant Royal Charter, agreed by all the parties and the victims, provides that to be approved (and thus...
  • User AvatarEddie Sammon 20th May - 6:56am
    Matthew you can't take my quotes out of context or treat things literally when I'm exaggerating to make a point. The very next line I...
  • User AvatarMatthew Huntbach 20th May - 6:29am
    Eddie Sammon Yes but Helen, at the end of the day we are basically wild animals and will always compete for resources Ask any employer...
  • User AvatarMatthew Huntbach 20th May - 6:16am
    Helen Tedcastle It’s interesting that Nick Clegg does not mention the benefits of the EU as a community built on co-operation and mutuality – he...
  • User AvatarEddie Sammon 19th May - 10:56pm
    Same goes towards investigating phone hacking.