Paranoia isn’t paranoia if they really are out to get you. And concerns about privacy are not and never have been paranoia. But never mind, wrong about everything all of the time Toynbee knows better.
Care.data was not just an appalling idea, it was an idea that was to be implemented by the state. This is the state that will always go for the lowest common denominator when it comes to junk technology, that then fails to properly manage that data – USB sticks on trains, for example. That it was an awful idea is why it was eventually stillborn.
According to the idiot Toynbee, those of us who objected and opted out, are suffering from some form of fashionable concern about privacy. What that says about Dame Fiona Caldicott, is not entirely clear…
Oh, sure, somewhere in the concept there was a kernel of logic – the ease with which researchers could gather epidemiological data to determine future health strategy, for example. But the cost was far too high. It certainly wasn’t a cost I was prepared to pay.
The greatest glory of UK research has been longitudinal studies: tens of thousands of children born in one week in each of the years 1946, 1958, 1970 and 2000 are being followed for life. Clues to everything we need to know are here. What weighs more, nature or nurture? Why are some children resilient to adversity while others flounder? The studies seek which physical, social or psychological factors shape people’s long-term health and happiness. They first found the smoking and cancer connection – and much more.
I find this frightening. Had I been recruited ( I was born in one of those years), I would have removed myself from it at the earliest opportunity. However, it seems that people are becoming more savvy when it comes to this type of intrusive survey:
But the latest, due to follow a cohort of babies born in 2015, has been scrapped – partly because mothers of new babies could not be recruited: they refused.
Good for them. Sometimes, little things happen that make me feel optimistic about the future – and anyone giving the two fingers to the ogre of the state and its thirst for ever more of our private information is a good thing to be applauded.
Toynbee, as usual is a feeble-minded apologist for the worst excesses of the vile state apparatus.
Too many refusers mean there may never be another census collected as before.
Good. None of their damned business. I’ve been “selected” for a couple of longitudinal surveys in recent years by the ONS and on both occasions have refused. It took a while, but they got the message eventually. I will do so again. Because… My private life is just that. The state can go hang.
Interesting that she references finding the link between smoking and cancer but follows it up with nothing else. There is a good reason for that.
This witless champagne socialist also had the gall to suggest that we oldies got the answer to the referendum wrong because we lack a university education.
I opted out but I’ve never felt confident that the State respected my decision.
This might be of interest … more Guardian health “stuff” – which would be near impossible to make up.
– the comments are excellent
“They first found the smoking and cancer connection”
Oh, and there was me thinking that it was that nice (ahem) Dr Doll all this time …
But, hey, all this “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” stuff really gets right up my nose. The best response to this which I heard (on a radio call-in show) was a pro-privacy chap who asked one of these “nothing to hide …” merchants: “People need privacy. That’s why we close the curtains in our front rooms when it gets dark. If anyone feels strongly that they’ve ‘nothing to hide and so nothing to fear,’ then they should ask themselves why they do that – because I bet they do. Therein lies the answer as to why this proposed legislation is both wrong and unpopular. It’s nothing to do with having nothing to hide – it’s about wanting to keep your private life, private – which is a fundamental human instinct.” I think this was in respect of the Snoopers’ Charter, but I can’t be certain. But it applies to any of these nosy-parker “for your own good” proposals.
The state is there to serve my needs:- operative word serve.
I do NOT exist purely to serve the needs of, or submit to the directives of, the state.
Bollocks to the lot of ’em.
It seems the population isn’t entirely lacking in backbone after all. Good!
This kind of thing shows how important it was to start to get our democracy back. There is still a long way to go, I’m not sure what we will have to do if there is any reneging on the Brexit vote. Then there is the matter of having an actual choice in our domestic elections. At least we have made a start.
Sorry to be OT Mr. Longrider but I thought that this was important.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/133618
I hope that most of the 52% sign it, just in case there is any doubt about what we want.