Few people realise how much of their private information is stored electronically. New research in the Netherlands shows that details on the average Dutch citizen are held in as many as 250 databases.

Some people's details are kept in thousands of places. On Friday, the Dutch 'Big Brother' Awards will be presented to those judged responsible for the worst breaches of privacy in 2009.

Almost everyone is aware that their details are held by agencies such as the tax office or for things like the electoral list. However, a lot of us have no idea about all the other places where our information is held.
 
Many experts are worried about the threat this poses. Dr Bart Schermer of Leiden University has written a report about this issue entitled 'Our Digital Shadow'.
 
"Especially those big government projects, like the electronic dossiers on children or centralised passport database. I believe these are the kind of databases the government shouldn't be trying to create in the first place, and which ordinary people wouldn't want their details to end up in."
 
Child aged 33
The new electronic dossiers for children exist to store details on children and young people registered with the Child Care Agency. The dossiers can go on being updated until the 'child' in question is as old as 33.
 
Bart Schermer says this information can quickly "lead a life of its own". The dossier can even become more important than the child it relates to.
 
They are meant to make it easier to act when a child needs help. But records are also kept on children who never turn into 'problem cases' or need intervention of any kind. Bart Schermer says these files can, therefore, have a stigmatising effect.
 
Greater threat
The central passport database probably poses a greater threat to privacy. Although it is meant to prevent passport fraud, the police can access its records for other purposes too. If hackers managed to gain access, the consequences could be truly disastrous.
 
Bart Schermer isn't only worried about hackers and leaks, but also about bits of information being misinterpreted. There are many negative possibilities: people being refused insurance on the basis of incorrect data, or not getting a job because of an old photo showing them drunk that was posted on Facebook or another social networking site.
 
Big Brother
Dr Schermer says people should be a lot more careful about what they do with their private details on the Internet, and drop the "I've got nothing to fear, because I've got nothing to hide" attitude.
 
He sees two distinct scenarios for information misuse. The 'Big Brother' and the 'Kafka' scenarios. The first comes from George Orwell's book 1984, in which the government monitors and subjugates its citizens through the use of omnipresent cameras.
 
However, the 'Kafka' scenario worries him more. Here, all sorts of private information is kept in databases. It's then used by other automated systems to take decisions, resulting in individuals' lives being negatively affected without them knowing why. This is what happens to Joseph K in The Trial by Franz Kafka.
 
Bart Schermer: "He's charged with something, but doesn't know what. He has no means of putting up any resistance because he simply doesn't know which databases he's in."
 
Prizes
Dutch organisation Bits of Freedom has spent years monitoring the misuse of personal information. It is presenting the Big Brother Awards in collaboration with the De Balie debating centre in Amsterdam on Friday. The 'prizes' are for people, organisations or concepts which most threaten privacy - an accolade that no one wants.

Lead photo: adesigna at Flickr