HMRC - Intelligence Gathering Must Not be Allowed to Become Rat Hunting

HMRC recently offered a partial amnesty to businesses working in the plumbing trade. It seems to have been a profitable exercise, because HMRC now says that it will be 'inviting' other groups of tradespeople to come forward and declare unpaid tax.

Specifically, sometime between now and next year, HMRC is going to begin to take a closer look at e-marketplaces and people who provide private tuition and coaching.

Targets will be people who use e-marketplaces (like, for example e-bay) to buy or sell goods as a trade or business and fail to pay tax on the proceeds, and professionals who are in a position to earn money by providing tuition and coaching (either as a main or secondary income) in cash and on, as it were, 'the black'.

HMRC's Director of Risk and Intelligence said that HMRC wanted 'the views and experience of people and organisations outside his department to play a fuller part in the campaigns we design for customers', and hoped that it would be possible to maximise the 'exchange of information'.

He added that HMRC would use the information it gathered to pursue people who chose 'not to use the opportunities provided for them to put their affairs in order on the best possible terms'.

I have no objection to HMRC looking for the money it is owed in taxes. It has a right to do so, and it is right to do so.

I do, though, find it very objectionable indeed that a spokesman for a UK Government Department feels that it is right to invite people (however obliquely) to snitch on their service providers, friends and neighbours. Sadly, there are people who will see that invitation purely and simply as an opportunity to make life difficult for other people, and it is therefore to be hoped that HMRC staff will be able to sort the wheat from the chaff when those nasty little calls start to come in - as I have no doubt they will.

As a timely reminder to anyone who needs it: many an unpleasant regime has been built upon and perpetuated by encouraging (or, indeed, forcing!) its citizens to snitch on each other. Theirs is not an example we should wish to follow.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Beware of EU Regulation Cookie Cutters

Cookies are little pieces of code that many websites automatically install on site visitors’ computers in order to recognise and remember site visitor log-in details, browsing history, and ordering information, and allow users to navigate their site pages efficiently.They are also used by analytics software that monitors website usage, and third party advertising - like Google’s Ad Sense, for example.

Whether or not any given site user accepts cookie installation from any given website is up to the user, because whilst most modern browsers support cookies, they also allow users to disable or otherwise deal with them. Common options are:

To enable or disable cookies completely, so that they are always accepted, or always blocked.

To allow the user to see the cookies that are active with respect to a given page by typing javascript: alert (document.cookie) in the browser URL field.

To use a browser that incorporates a 'cookie manager' which allows the user to see and selectively delete cookies currently stored in the browser. (Internet Explorer, incidentally, only allows third-party cookies that are accompanied by (Compact Policy) field by default).

To use a browser that allows a full wipe of private data including all the cookies (most browsers do).

To purchase an add-on tool to manage cookies.

Nevertheless – thanks to a recent update to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations - it is now technically illegal for UK websites to install cookies on a user’s computer without first seeking the user’s conscious consent despite the fact that users are capable of protecting their own privacy should they so wish. The fine for non-compliance can be anything up to £500,000.

The legislation came into force on May 26 last and – surprise, surprise – no one is quite sure how it is going to work in practice.

The Information Commissioners Office, which is the body that will police the Regulations, has said that if it receives a complaint, it will give the website owner ‘up to one year’ to comply with the legislation, but obviously if your website uses cookies, you will need to get in touch with your website designer or developer and work out a method of obtaining the required consent from users as quickly as you can. It may be possible in the future to rely on the user’s browser settings to indicate consent – the Government is discussing the legislation with browser manufacturers – but it isn’t possible to do that now, and may not become possible in the usefully short term.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com

Reporting Internet Porn

The trouble with having the sort of internet presence that nearly everyone seems to feel is essential for SMEs these days is that spam forms part of the 'high profile' package.

Most of the time it's fairly harmless stuff - lots of pharmaceutical aids to a short and happy life, a fake designer watch or two and the odd offer of a life-changing degree from a non-existent university make up my normal daily spam sandwich - that isn't worth reporting to any one of the many places that it can be reported to. Sometimes, though, spam arrives that is so fundamentally unpleasant that it needs to reported to the proper authority as soon as possible.

On Tuesday last, and for the first time ever, I received an e-mail advertising internet pornography. One of the items on offer - and it was only one item on a very lengthy list - was 'underage sex', for which, of course, read 'child abuse'. I've had five similar messages since so 'Metliss Barfield' is obviously on somebody's list somewhere.

I reported the original e-mail immediately to the Internet Watch Foundation by filling in their on-line form, and received a swift acknowledgement full of good advice as to what to do should you receive something like this - or even, alas, other things that seemed to be me to be even worse.

Reporting this e-mail took seconds. If you receive one like it, please take a few seconds to make a report. I realise that it is easier to dump the e-mail in the trash and try to forget about it, but that isn't going to make the internet (or in fact the real world) a safer place for children or other vulnerable individuals.

Geoff - http://www.metlissbarfield.com