The passport records of all three US presidential candidates have been accessed without authorisation. It is not yet known whether these breaches of privacy were politically motivated or the result of simple curiosity on the part of employees at the US State Department.

Apologising to Senator Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that she would be disturbed if she learned that someone had looked into her passport file. Meanwhile, Democrat spokesmen have highlighted the potential security risks. I fear that, were such a thing to be discovered here, ministers would not be so sensitive to the issues involved.

Meg Hillier, Minister for ID cards, routinely dismisses concerns about the National Identity Register by pretending that it is comparable to the existing passport database and suggesting that no-one is worried about the data stored on that. The complacency of successive Home Office ministers is itself deeply disturbing.

Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights has just reported that data protection is not taken sufficiently seriously by government and highlighted in particular its lack of confidence about the security of data on a National Identity Register.

The only way to ensure data remains secure is to keep it private. That means not collecting and collating unnecessary personal data on vast government databases.

Geraint Bevan, NO2ID Scotland, 3e Grovepark Gardens, Glasgow.