Will it not end? Will we have to keep reading (almost on a daily basis now) about the security breaches involved concerning personal data?

Where is the fire this time? NHS Trusts in the UK, it would seem.

According to Reuters, nine National Health Service trusts have lost the records of hundreds of thousands of adults and children, in the latest embarrassing loss of data by official bodies.

Ever since the concern for data protection was augmented not too long ago by the UK government when it acknowledged it had lost CDs with the names and bank account details of 25 million people and exposing nearly half the population to possible fraud and identity theft, more and more news of failures to protect personal data by official bodies have been pouring in.

Yes, the government informed last week that one of its contractors had lost the detail of 3 million learner drivers! Now, how is this possible? How can it just be lost? What has happened to the compliance of strict procedures in protecting personal data? If this is happening within official bodies, how much more within companies and other organisations where almost no form of security procedure is adhered to concerning the protection of personal data? And whilst this is reported in the UK, where, mind you, they are much more strict about such matters, what is the situation like in other countries?

I shudder to think what is happening in Belgium, for instance - whereby about 97% of the companies (in a research in 2005) are not compliant to the Belgian Data Protection Law. To top it off, in a research in 2006, none of the non-profit organisations including the political parties were compliant either. And in Belgium, many cases do not make it to the headlines for some reason.

So, what do we do? Make more noise? Let this continue? If only those in power would start enforcing the sanctions and make examples of these organisations.