BBC News Online: 'Snoop' plans put on hold

[Peter Mitchell]

Ian Brown wrote:
> 
> > First, banks actually have a duty to report to the government any
> > suspicious transactions.  It's part of the war-on-drugs/money laundering
> > stuff.
> 
> I found it amusing/alarming when a major high street bank insisted that I
> transferred a reasonable sum of money between two accounts in chunks of
> ?5,000, presumably to reduce the costs of complying with reporting
> requirements...
> 
> As much as I agree with David's sentiments, remember also that the Health
> and Social Care Act 2001 imposes a duty on NHS and private doctors to hand
> over your medical records without consent when required to under an Order
> from the Secretary of State (eg to cancer registries).
> http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2001/10015--g.htm#60


Both of these points relate to *statutory* duties. Naturally a bank,
doctor or ISP is not to be criticised for performing such duties,
whether or not one agrees with the relevant statutes.

My criticism of ISPs was that they appear willing to break their duty of
confidence to their customer without being under any statutory duty to
do so. And without admitting that they do so. That is the particularly
dishonest part of it. 


--
Pete Mitchell