Comments on: it happened to me

By: Jenn

Jenn — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:06:01 +0000

Hi all,

Just to let you know Erasing David will be playing at London Transport Museum in a special screening on December 9 at 6.30pm!

For more information check out http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/events/events-calendar/362-events-sense-and-the-city#david

Bring your friends/colleagues!

By: c perival

c perival — Sun, 08 May 2011 03:40:35 +0000

i saw a u tube video that facebook was setup by the cia it gave a linage of who was involved. then i heared that face recognition tecnology was being used on the faces that were shown.thats how it works? It was a bad idea that the rountree trust wanted to stop tax relief on morgages now nobody can afford to buy a house or flat. thank you for getting it wrong. you make a tory politicions life that much better c percival

By: Xavyr

Xavyr — Wed, 04 May 2011 20:39:44 +0000

Some time ago, I got hold of my personal data from a government agency.
Reason: I had an appointment with a person from a government agency and, with my file in front of him, he talked about my life like he knew me. More than 80% of what he told me was wrong.
In the report, having personal data in it collected over 15 years, besides having many errors in it, it had some false disturbing information about my mother. The report claimed she was an alcoholic. My mother has never been an alcoholic but she ran a shop that specialized in making your own wine. I remember telling them that once when I was asked what my parents did for a living.
Yeah… I know. She called them, and asked for a rectification and she got what she asked for. Now, here comes the icky part. My parents are divorced and not only has my mother a different last name as I have but she also lives in a different country. And about 4 weeks after asking for a rectification she received a thick envelope (stamped “personal and secret”) with the rectification in it AND every bit of information about me, that this government agency had collected about me for over 15 years.

They sent my personal file to someone with a different last name living in a different country.

—

Internet Tip: If you’re running firefox look up the add-on “better privacy 1.50″ and “no script 2.1.0.3″

What I really find disturbing is that I am the only one in my environment that seems disturbed by this all. And what it is leading too.

By: RhuBarb

RhuBarb — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:08:18 +0000

Well done, your doc was on More4 the other day, do another one. Best wishes

By: An Activist

An Activist — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:44:37 +0000

I attended a peaceful protest outside a company, the next time I went there the Security referred to me by name and said he had found me on facebook.

By: john

john — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:54:09 +0000

People who are serious about privacy don’t have a Facebook account or anything remotely similar. You have a Facebook account but have you closed it? It seems some enjoy giving dull minute by minute accounts of their lives online but a company who track your eating or shopping habits, know which websites you visited are somehow intruding?

By: Apricot

Apricot — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:15:22 +0000

I have just watched Erasing David screened on More4. Brilliant in all aspects. My comment on the whole issue of databases and our own info is that the same companies be it private or government will charge you to get a copy of your own info back! I bet David had to pay a fee to Amazon or the passport office for his own records as I did a few years ago have to pay a substantial fee for access to my own medical records. It’s the same question who owns the information ?

Well done to all concerned – a fantastic production !! Really makes you think

By: Anon

Anon — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:57:06 +0000

The thing is it’s impossible to function in modern society without freely handing over this information. We moved home and booked an appointment to have tv, broadband and phone installed. We were told it would take 2 weeks and yet within 3 days we had a letter from tv licensing urging us to pay! We hadn’t even got the tv in yet! But it shows how fast our details were passed on. So what do you do? Refuse? I believe it’s a test to see how freely people are willing to hand over personal data so by the time micro chipping will come into effect, it will be second nature to us.

The worrying thing is we grew up in a different generation were some us are still able to recognise how wrong it all is, however the next generation after us will not know any different and success! A population of Robots whose every move is not only monitored, predicted and manipulated.

So what are we going to do about it? Nothing. Because the truth is we are happy to sell our souls all because of our own greed and laziness. I don’t know about you but I most certainly can’t imagine going back to a world without technology

By: A Mother

A Mother — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:20:57 +0000

When registering my child’s birth with the child benefit agency, they asked me to send a copy of his birth certificate – which I did. The person inputting the information put one digit of my child’s birth date in wrong. I pointed out their error, they asked me to send in his birth certificate (again) as proof. After a few weeks I discovered it still hadn’t been corrected when I phoned them and they wouldn’t give me any information as I “Had given the wrong birthdate” (well, I’d given them my son’s REAL date of birth – after all, I was there!) They have since admitted they have “Misplaced” his birth certificate without even correcting his date of birth and want me to pay for a replacement full birth certificate to send to them in order to correct their mistake in the first place! My son is now almost 3 years old and I am still no nearer to getting this problem solved-Because I refuse to pay money to correct their mistake.

By: David Bond

David Bond — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:02:25 +0000

Yes this is a really interesting question – whether it is possible to function without an online presence or public face. Will think about that…