‘Mistakes Happen’ was Gordon Brown’s response to the last data security blunder, in which details – including passwords – of 12 million citizens were found on a memory stick in a pub.
True, Mr. Brown, mistakes do happen, but we must do all in our power to minimize them, and we build special procedures to ensure that grave mistakes will not happen.
This is the reason that so far no American president had to use this lame excuse for mistakenly pushing the red button; this is the reason that every gun has a safety mechanism; this is also the reason that sensitive data is encrypted, stored on machines that do not allow memory sticks, and use other even more sophisticated technology.
But none of these have been in place to protect the crucial data. It’s not a failure of the one employee who lost the stick, but of the system that allowed it to happen.
Unfortunately, England is notorious for missing small, yet crucial, details in big projects. So unless we change this and recognise that some mistakes should never happen, we must not allow you, Mr. Brown to continue with you ID card scheme, nor with your national DNA and biometric database.
Mr. Brown, mistakes happen – too many to my liking – and this is exactly the reason why you cannot be trusted with my data. So either you show me that you can ensure that mistakes will not happen, or back off.
You must not be allowed to eat the cake and keep it too.