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HMRC to share data?

29.04.14

HM Revenue & Customs could sell the information of millions of taxpayers to private firms, despite MPs and tax professionals displaying concerns over the proposals.

The plans were described as 'borderline insane' by former Conservative MP David Davis.

Although HMRC have promised that the data would remain anonymous, concerns have been raised by several individuals, including Mr Davis, who told the Guardian:

"The officials who drew this up clearly have no idea of the risks to data in an electronic age.

"Our forefathers put these check and balances in pace then the information was kept in cardboard files and data was therefore difficult to appropriate and misuse.

"It defies logic that we would remove those restraints at a time when data can be collected by the gigabyte, processed in milliseconds and transported around the world almost instantaneously."

Another cause for concern surrounding privacy and the distribution of 'anonymous' data is the government's proposed 'care.data' programme, which planned to share medical records with third parties. Its introduction has since been suspended for six months due to concerns over the anonymity of the records.

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