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Peter Tatchell |
FURY AT BIG BROTHER SEX SNOOP
Housing bosses demand database of tenants’ lives
HOUSING chiefs stand accused this week of wanting to snoop on residents by creating an Orwellian database detailing every facet of their lives – even their sexuality.
Objectors fear the personal information could be sold on and misused by private companies, leading to victimisation of the vulnerable.
The questions are part of a raft of measures that Homes for Islington (HfI) – the company that manages the borough’s housing stock on behalf of the council – wants to implement.
HfI argues the “diversity monitoring information” – including gender, ethnicity, disability, age, faith and sexuality – will be used to fight discrimination and provide a better service.
Last night (Thursday), campaigners, including Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti and gay activist Peter Tatchell, voiced their concerns about the database.
Critics described the nature of the information as intrusive and sinister.
Ms Chakrabarti said such databases “create more problems than they solve”.
Under the deal, HfI wants the Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations (FITA) to proactively collect the information.
It will start with an electronic profile of each chairperson of the borough’s 100 or so tenants and residents associations.
It could culminate in an intricate digital picture of every aspect of the personal lives of the people who live in Islington’s 40,000 council properties.
Ms Chakrabarti told the Tribune: “People think that large databases are the new answer to every problem, but quite often they create more problems than they solve.
“Every interference with somebody’s privacy has to be justified.”
“If they need genuine information, they can do it with an anonymous survey.
“Sometimes, in the past, people have felt they are under some kind of compulsion [to answer] and need to know the information is not being sold to companies like Tesco.”
Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, founder of Outrage!, said last night (Thursday): “They need to be reassured that this information will remain restricted.
“I would be very concerned if this kind of information became the property of private companies.”
HfI is asking the Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations (FITA), to help collect the information – but so far it has refused.
Chairman Brian Potter said: “We are strongly against that and are refusing to do it. We want to negotiate our settlement with Islington Council, not have HfI force a dictated one on us.”
If FITA refuses to agree to the new terms of the Service Level Agreement by today (Friday), it faces losing its £100,000-a-year council grant.
HfI has made other demands, including the right to censor FITA’s newsletter.
Openly gay Islington housing campaigner Thomas Cooper said: “Already, information I gave to the council and police has ended up in the hands of Homes for Islington – a private company.”
Ann Lucas, chairwoman of HfI, said that as FITA is funded by public money it is important it demonstrates that it represents the community it serves.
“HFI are working to ensure a better understanding of the make-up of the local community. Diversity monitoring provides important information so that we can better tailor our services to meet the needs of the residents,” she added. |
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