I think at present that citizens interacting with government services online is still relatively new, and they obviously havn't fully thought through the potential national security implications of using things such as Google Analytics and outsourced helpdesks.
I've been using UK government services online for several years now. I'm not sure if it's always been the way it is now, I never bothered to look at the loaded artifacts and page source for the older sites, but I get the impression that it wasn't like this before.
There was a big fanfare a few months back about how gov.uk was modern, useful, using industry best practices, open source tech and was just generally awesome and cool. I think what's happened is that they've either outsourced to or hired in a bunch of hip, trendy web developers s who had no real comprehension of data protection.
As someone with an interest in computer security, and who has in the past lived with data protection consultants, this disturbs me.
Anyone know which minister or ministry in the UK government is ultimately responsible for the UK government electronic data presence? Or who I might approach about these Data Protection concerns?
I would contact the ICO in the first instance. It would be the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that would deal with internet-related issues generally, then there is of course your local MP.
I must admit to being a little surprised that they are using Google Analytics plus the site doesn't have a privacy policy either. It seems a little bizarre to have a cookie policy but not one detailing usage of user information generally.
