Have a great day.

Martin

‘Thanks for the feedback. Today is, as a matter of fact, the first time I’d heard of ContactPoint, and I am guilty of only reading the one article before forming my opinions.”

I’m just wondering if all your blogging is predicated on opinions formed ont he basis of reading one newspaper article, when there is a huge volume of material about the question being discussed freely available on the web.

My concerns are very similar to yours, and you really have to stand back and ask why is there a need for collection of data into central repositories?

Within the context of ContactPoint the sole aim was to try and improve information sharing between professionals. It came about after a small girl was murdered in London even though she was known to lots of Social Services. When the report into the actions of her death where made public it showed that nobody knew who else had dealings with her. ContactPoint prime reason for being is to show who else is dealing with a child. On paper its a really good idea.

What is a my bug bear is the danger of placing the data into the hands of a Government that has a terrible reputation of data security.

If I had a database that had information about kids and the data was compromised in some way, sure it would be a big deal, but in the big scheme of things its a small database.

If I then combine that with lots of other databases it near enough creates it’s own gravity, of the wrong type…. and for all the wrong reasons.

Social engineering as it is means there will be a breach of security with this database its just a question of time.

Its a case of “the right reasons” but too much at stake. IMHO

They should take this model and reduce it in scale to combine local data and share between neighbours.

Any way – a good debate me thinks..

)

adam

Thanks for the feedback. Today is, as a matter of face, the first time I’d heard of ContactPoint, and I am guilty of only reading the one article before forming my opinions. So thanks for letting me know that there’s a lot more going on here and that the original article might be a little one sided.

The thought of this being a database containing information on all children in England and Wales scares me even more than the thought of this being about at risk children. I cringe at the thought of people being educated into believing that having the government track them like this from an early age for no other reason than something might be useful at some point. People need to realize that just collecting the data for the sake of having it is dangerous. Very dangerous. And despite general wisdom, the danger is much greater from someone internal abusing the system than from an external attacker.

I could rant all day on the dangers of governmental collection of data. Instead, let me thank you again for clearing up some of my misconceptions. I don’t know if I’m happier knowing the facts, but I’m definitely better educated for it.

Martin

To me it seems you have read information from the web without researching any of the details.

You will find that ContactPoint is not a database of “at risk” children but more a register of all children in England and Wales. If a child is at risk they are more likely to have their information shielded on ContactPoint, in a similar way to children of celebrities or high profile members of the public.

You also talk about security being bolted on afterwards, again your facts are wrong. To be considered to be able to access the ContactPoint system (think very secure webbased telephone directory!) you need to be sponsored, you need to be Police vetted (enahanced CRB – think very detailed police search on your past history), you need to be vetted by your own organisation, you need to have fulfilled the mandatory training on the legal aspects of sharing information and you need to have carried out the ContactPoint training.
It is only then that you will be provided with a token for access, this token is a 1-2-1 ratio, and is used to login to the system. Anything you do in the system is audited. Every Council has to have a dedicated team of people to keep an eye on the use of ContactPoint.

Overall the security of the system is more than any other system ever attempted to be introduced into the English Councils.

It is not 100% secure because no system ever is, but its a lot better than you realise.

But – I am not an advocate of the ContactPoint and am deeply concerned over the misuse of the data, which IMHO will come from the Centralisation of the data rather than rouge elements accessing individual elements.

I just thought that you would be happier knowing the facts..

thanks

Adam