Editorial #245: Personal Privacy Breach

Autism Politico would just like to point out the hypocrisy of the people within the autism rights movement who bemoan the breach of privacy that occurred when an autism organization’s laptop was stolen but continue to ignore the autism registry in New Jersey which compels doctors to register autistics without their consent.

In yet another data breach, it was recently discovered that a laptop containing sensitive information about 80 children with Asperger’s syndrome was stolen from Asperger’s Children and Carers Together (ACCT).

It has also been learned that the laptop was stolen from an employee’s house last December, and that it carried names, addresses and key medical information about these children.

Not surprisingly, the Information Commissioner’s office reacted quite sharply by calling the incident a violation of the Data Protection laws, and asked the charity to ensure that in the future “information is encrypted”.

Autism Politico almost wishes that the stolen personal information belonged to the people at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network who supported the New Jersey autism registry. Lots of children are having THEIR privacy rights violated by having them signed up for the registry without their consent, but no one cares.

And if you’re reading this and do nothing about it, you don’t care either.

Replies to this editorial are welcome.