WRITTEN ON October 7th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Foundation of Trust, What do we want?

I think we have to face up to the fact that the Scots who run SNP-led Scotland (for all its unsettling anti-union words and evident anti-English bias) is opening up a clear privacy lead over the Scots who run the Labour-led United Kingdom. Consider:

- the establishment of the privacy experts group

- stronger data-security rules for the NHS in Scotland (from Kablenet)

Now a Scottish friend sends me his confirmation of voter details. Along with name, nationality and opt-out status it confirms

Date of birth: Over 18

Now, pedants might argue that “over 18″ is a poor answer to the question what is your date of birth. But it’s the first obvious instance I can recall of a public database restricing the information given to that which is strictly necessary for the transaction in hand. It’s a very small but healthy sign…