Brits' data "can be accessed by half a million computers"

 

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By Ramsey DeHani

Posted on 8 Feb 2010 at 17:48

Private data on British citizens can be accessed from half a million computers around the EU, according to civil liberties campaigners.

The European Council's Schengen Information System (SIS) - which holds data on arrest warrants, immigration status and other personal details from nations across the EU - has raised concerns about the wide availability of sensitive data.

Statewatch, a group that monitors civil liberties in Europe, claims that the main problem with the system is that access is automated.

Tony Bunyan, director of the organisation, told PC Pro: “The main thing that surprised us was the growth of it, from 125,000 terminals to half a million.”

This rise has been caused by the expansion of the EU, which grew in 2004 and 2007 to include former eastern bloc countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.

Bunyan added that EU citizens should ask whether or not the system is properly controlled as "we are increasingly moving to a system which is automated and anyone can access it", and the more people who have access to data, the more likely it is that "data will be misplaced, lost or illegally accessed".

"Under the principal of availability, information is now available to all agencies," Bunyan added. "Member states can search national databases of other states, including fingerprints and personal details. This system is automated and people do not have to say why they are accessing it."