When sharing data is not a risk to identity theft

Younger caravan or motorhome users, who take a gap year to travel and work within the European Union, may well experience real difficulties with social security and work-permits.

A project entitled GUIDE should help to store individual data, which can be accessed by member states, which should smooth the application process for individuals and businesses.

Mark Greaves, GUIDE's co-ordinator, explains that there are two basic issues to solve.

"The first is to persuade governments to trust one another with their citizens’ data, and to make sure that these citizens have given permission for their data to be used across borders," he said.

"The second is about technology: techniques that work for on-line shopping are not always appropriate for data exchange between huge government databases."

So far, trials have been encouraging. "The first concerned form E101, used to record the social security details of people who are working temporarily in another country. This trial, which took place in the Netherlands, Belgium and Estonia, was a great success." Greaves concluded.

16/12/2007 17:00:48