A couple of weeks ago, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff spoke at the Eigth Annual U.S. Customs and Border Protection Trade Symposium (Nov 15). I’m not in the business of trade so a lot of it was a little over my head, but my ears always prick up whenever the word biometrics is mentioned. I’m still puzzled at the argument that collecting more information makes us all safer because I know from experience, that the more personal information I throw out into someone else’s data buckets, the less safe I feel.

Chertoff:

“And that insight is behind not only everything that we have done — in terms of collecting more information at the border, more precise targeting at the border, and raising our protections at the border — but it’s behind what the Prime Minister of Great Britain announced yesterday, as they’re moving to enhance their borders to what they call an e-Border system that will collect more information and more biometrics.”

I wonder how he feels about that statement now, considering the headline at Privacy.org last week:

UK Government Loses Personal Data of Almost Half Its Population

So far, the story is that personal information from 7 million some-odd families (including children) was downloaded and copied onto two Cds (encrypted). These were then sent into inter-office mail and subsequently lost. 25 million people have been put on alert and have been asked to watch for suspicious activity in their bank accounts.

If a government proves it cannot handle proper procedures when dealing with its citizens’ tax information, how can it justify collecting their biological information?