Daily Archives: September 29, 2014


David Barrett and Philip Sherwell report in the Daily Telegraph on a privacy threat to UK Citizens, businesses and even Government information. It follows a court ruling by a New York judge that Microsoft must hand over to US prosecutors the emails of a European customer stored on its servers in Ireland, as part of a drugs trafficking investigation; however, to do so could break Irish and EU data protection laws.  Microsoft is fighting the case, but Professor Ian Walden, of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University London, believes they will lose. If so Professor Walden believes that it presents a huge privacy risk for British companies and British individuals: “If the federal government is victorious it will raise the threat that if you come to the attention of the US authorities whether directly or indirectly your information may be accessible if it’s stored with American […]

US threat to British online privacy


Rory Cellan-Jones reports on the BBC news website about a new Identity Assurance System that has been developed by Government Digital Services.  The idea is that it will be one-stop shop for proving identity for a range of government services, from renewing your passport or driving licence to paying tax. Under the system verification of identity is not done by the government but by a range of outside companies.  While the system is being developed this is currently limited to the credit rating agency Experian and the American company Verizon.  Ultimately it is expected that other organisations like banks and UK mobile phone operators will also be suppliers. Unfortunately, as Rory reports, when he tried out the system it was unable to verify his identity – not a good start.

Government Digital Service Demonstrates Verify an Identity Assurance System