Sending data abroad

[Nicholas Bohm]

David Hansen wrote:
> On 20 Feb 2009 at 12:03, Nicholas Bohm wrote:
> 
>> Some governments see the problem:  "Ottawa recalls sensitive database in
>> B.C. border project - The federal government is repatriating a database
>> of personal information about Canadian citizens after warnings the U.S.
>> government might misuse it."
> 
> Good to see that some goverments have woken up from their  sleepwalk. 
> Not all have done though.
> 
> Having decided to give a contract to those involved in torture at Abu 
> Ghraib, the Scottish Government has been busy trying to claim that the 
> data will not be passed to the USA [1] [2]. They must think we are more 
> stupid than we look.
> 
> However, the Scottish Government is privy to attempts by the torturers 
> to prevent this information being revealed to the public [3].
> 
> 
> [1] their assertion is, "GROS will own all Scottish census data. The 
> data will be processed in Scotland and remain here at all times in both 
> paper and electronic formats. Only British and Irish registered 
> companies will have access to personal census data - no US company has 
> any access to the data."
> 
> <http://www.sacc.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=624&catid=
> 33>

Governments often display a naive failure to understand company law.

Anyone can register a company in the UK (and as far as I know in
Ireland), so such companies may be wholly owned and managed by US
bodies, and may have no assets in the UK against which any kind of
enforcement could be undertaken.  Limiting access in this way has no
useful effect whatever.

Nicholas
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