the register analysis the data protection bill

The House of Lords will today start poring over the UK’s Data Protection Bill, line by line, as it enters committee stage.

The peers have to agree to every one of the 194 clauses in the bill and debate 32 pages' worth of amendments, so it's no surprise this stage can often take more than seven days to complete.

The bill, introduced last month, aims to put the EU General Data Protection Regulation into UK legislation.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/30/reg_analysis_the_data_protection_bill/

theres an interesting part in this

However, since its introduction, a more significant cause for concern has been spotted in the bill text that has caused an outcry from privacy and civil liberty campaigners, including MedConfidential.

This is a broad exemption that would remove a person's rights as a data subject – their ability to access information or ask how it is being used – if satisfying them would prejudice "effective immigration control", but this is not specifically defined.

This is concerning because it isn't clear what the government wants to use this exemption for. It's not in either of the two preceding Data Protection Acts - which have been around for the past 35 years - and there are already exemptions for cases of crime, national security, public safety and protection of sources in both the GDPR and elsewhere in domestic law.

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2017/11/03/buried-in-a-government-bill-an-immigration-rule-strips-milli

Would people working to help migrants – maybe those running food banks or night shelters – be seen as frustrating the Home Office strategy of incentivising people to 'go home' through enforced destitution?

The exemption could also be used to facilitate the sharing of personal data between public services and the Home Office if it's decided checking everyone's entitlement to access healthcare, education or social housing is necessary for effective immigration control.

This would effectively create a digital ID card for each and every one of us without us knowing what data is being shared, or being able to have it corrected or deleted.

The idea that personal data collected for one purpose can't be used for another without the individual's informed consent is the cardinal principle of data protection. This exemption makes a mockery of it and sets a damaging precedent for the privacy rights of all of us.