Hi all,

We’re going to be taking an extended break–far longer than Christmas hols. The CSIA is evaluating their options, so to speak, and will be deciding on whether or not to keep Blindside going at the end of Feb.

We’ll still be baby-sitting the site, so if you have comments on any IA issues (or on Blindside in general), put them on this post–maybe we’ll send an addendum over to CSIA.

We leave you with this. Symbolic of this shambolic year to date, really. 2007 should be remembered as the year we gave it away–it being data.

The personal details of three million learner drivers have been lost by the Government, ministers have admitted.

“Private information held on teenagers and other people taking the driving theory test - including their names, addresses and phone numbers - have gone missing from a company in America. Details of the people that sat the driving theory test between September 2004 and April 2007 were lost. In the latest such blunder by the Government, Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, disclosed that the files held on a hard disc drive were lost at a facility in Iowa City last May. The Government faced questions about whether it has misplaced any more records and how many countries process personal details of Britons. Births, deaths and marriage records of millions of British citizens are at present being turned into digital files by a computer firm in India.”

“Miss Kelly was informed about the latest data loss - which experts say could expose millions to the threat of identity fraud - on Nov 28. Yet she admitted the fiasco only last night, on the eve of MPs’ Christmas break.”

Happy holidays to you all! We hope to see you in the New Year, refreshed and ready to continue our exploration of information and identity–we’ll turn into regular shrinks before we know it.

p.s. (You knew it had to happen, right?) “The beleaguered government agency at the centre of the child benefit records fiasco was embroiled in another personal data row last night after losing the pension details of more than 6,500 people. A data cartridge containing the information was misplaced by HM Revenue and Customs, which previously admitted losing two computer discs containing the entire child benefit database of 25 million people.”

“The pensions cartridge is not encrypted or password protected and contains the details of policy holders with Countrywide Assured plc, leaving them open to the threat of identity fraud. It holds their names, addresses, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers, a total valuation of their pension fund, the date of that valuation, the amount of their pension contributions and National Insurance rebates received. Their bank account details are not included.”