Re: Without being too picky...
Peter Gathercole: "The alternative that has been mooted is to buy the data from the likes of Google and Facebook, and combine that with information that the government already holds, on the belief that all people will have to have at least some internet (or whatever follows the Internet) presence in 2031."
Well, I do not now have, and never have had a Facebook account, and the Gmail account in my name was set up by fraudsters who used it (amongst other fraudulent bank accounts ) to defraud certain financial institutions of some of my savings and pension plans*. So I'm to entirely sure the proposal above would be a particularly good idea.
I know that there are homeless people with mobile phones, but there are some without. In years past there were dedicated Census recorders who went out finding people sleeping rough and helping them to complete the census forms. (Genuinely brave souls, I expect.). So there will always be a requirement for some direct contact, if a proper job is to be done.
*They got about £80k, but as they only attacked the companies, I seem to have got it all back, eventually, although it was very stressful at the time (and still is a bit TBH). If you are missing some important post (Pension company statements, bank statements, other financial documents, remember to check with all your financial services providers that they have not seen any attempts to close your accounts, and to be aware of possible fraud. You can set up extra security on telephone banking too, but I digress... And in other financial news HMG has disbanded the dedicated Joint Fraud Taskforce, which coordinated the banks, police and financial regulators (I money article on Wednesday 17th March).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
