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WHITEHALL FIGHTS BIG BROTHER IMAGE

Whitehall officials are searching for ways to banish public fears of the government’s “Big Brother” powers, according to leaked papers.

The officials admit that many people do not trust the state and suspect that Whitehall is storing and secretly exchanging huge amounts of personal data on individuals – a suspicion denied by the government.

But the confidential papers further undermine government credibility by revealing that Downing Street thwarted attempts by 100 Conservative MPs to discover what information it was keeping on them.

Tony Blair is planning sweeping new powers to allow government departments to acquire huge databases of private information on citizens, enabling state agencies to swap sensitive personal data – without the knowledge or consent of individuals – on a far greater scale. The government is drafting legislation to bring in the proposal, set out last April by a Downing Street thinktank.

The proposals have provoked intense opposition from civil liberties groups, which fear that the government is collecting too much, and often inaccurate information.

They argue that personal information given to the government for one purpose should not be used for another purpose without consent. Senior Whitehall officials on the inter-departmental group looking at data privacy and freedom of information admitted that “public trust was recognised by the group as a particularly difficult issue in this context.”

According to the minutes obtained by the Guardian, the group decided to “look into what can be done to make progress on the issue of public trust at government level” and to report back by this spring.

THE GUARDIAN, Feb. 13, 2003