Information Commissioner needs new powers

From the Guardian:

"The information commissioner is to propose sweeping new privacy powers today to halt the slide towards a surveillance society. Richard Thomas will tell a Commons home affairs select committee inquiry that the accelerating pace of technological change means pre-emptive action is needed to minimise the intrusion of the state and companies into the individual lives of citizens.

"Advances in technology mean that as individuals lead their lives in the 21st century they leave electronic footprints behind with the click of mouse, making a phone call, paying with a payment card, using 'joined-up' government services or just walking down a street where CCTV is in operation," Mr Thomas said.

"Our transactions are tracked, our interactions identified and our preferences profiled - all with the potential to build up an increasingly detailed and intrusive picture of how each of us lives."

The privacy safeguards he wants introduced include mandatory privacy impact statements, compulsory powers of inspection and penalties to punish flagrant breaches of data protection laws."