odd pamphlet

[Andrew Brown]

A very bizarre pamphlet was shoved through my letterbox this week,
blending RIPA and health service paranoia with more traditional
themes. The headline was

BEWARE - it's the FULL monty for YOU.

I have scanned in a couple of excerpts to give the flavour, though I
have got rid of most of the wacko typography:

> THE INCREDIBLE QUANGO-TANGO! Beef-on-the-bone's risky, so it was
> YOU-on-the-bone Instead' YOUR SKELETON could have tangoed for an
> Establishment quango! But plans to harvest your eyes, heart feet,
> knees, hips, etc. and have them sold by Frankenstein' Fat Cats,
> are in limbo thanks to the NHS organs storage fiasco - and the
> election! Please do consider organ donation. Whether you decide to
> Rest in Pieces, or In One Wholesome Peace, your doctor respects
> your choice. However, YOU still have a large bone to pick with The
> Establishment; they're stripping YOUR privacy
(that was underneath a picture of a sekleton.)

Then there's

> Establishment agencies and Big Business are building "information
> superhighway" databases to collect medical reports about YOU. The
> reports - obtained without your knowledge, consent or court order -
> will be incubated by snoops who have many other databases - crammed
> with intelligence about YOUR LIFESTYLE, FINANCES, OPINIONS - at
> their fingertips. The SUPERspyWAY THROUGH YOUR PRIVACY includes
> 'innocent' computer systems that, in fact, are Trojan Horses into
> the health service: NHSnet, NHSdirect, Bthealthnet. Alerted by
> university computer experts, the British Medical Association, has
> condemned plans for patients' files as UNETHICAL. Codes/passwords
> can 't guarantee privacy So serious is the spy menace that the
> General Medical Council has now sounded an alarm to doctors. Hacked
> files, with intimate details of patients, have been sold to: BANKERS
> - who harassed worried cancer patients for early repayment of loans
> INSURANCE COMPANIES - who leaked medical reports to credit agencies.
> For three centuries racked by wars and pandemics life insurers have
> amassed billions without help from DNA tests. But these tests
> promise even fatter profits: your "bad" genes could mean rip-off
> premiums (Or refused protection). Through insurers genetic test
> results can soon reach... CREDIT SNOOPS - who sell medical results
> to mortgage & car lenders, employers etc.

And

> PSYCHOPATHS - a danger to YOU! The murderous career of
> serial-euthanasist Harold Shipman shows what can happen when a
> psychopath commands knowledge of patients. Computer files were a
> rapid source of information to Shipman as he selected candidates for
> "quiet, painless death". NHS Trojan Horse networks seriously degrade
> your security, not simply because the systems are 'hackable'. Your
> records will no longer be safely locked up in one or two places:
> they'll he all over 'cyberspace viewable on many NHS (and covert)
> tenninals. The danger that a psychopathic stranger will select YOUR
> records is considerable ..


In the bottom right-hand corner there is a form to sign to give to the
doctor, deploring BThealthnet, and caliming that it is produced by the
"National Crusade for Medical Privacy and Protection Against
Electronic Theft (BRITISH CRUMPPET) Stratford-upon-Avon."

Has anyone else seen these?

I'll take the risk of signing this with my real name


 -- 
Andrew Brown
voice +44 (1799) 516812
fax   +44 (1799) 516832
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what I do: http://www.darwinwars.com