Groucho Marx famously said that he wouldn’t join a club that would have him as a member.

I think that I wouldn’t fully trust an organisation that would trust me. Which is a large part of the reason that I don’t trust the state; I know how easy it was for me to be in a position where I could have accessed quite personal information for everyone in Norn Iron, and I have little to no faith that things are any more secure in the rest of the UK.

But then, sez you, the delightful and upstanding Mr Hillan is no threat, and would never abuse that position. And it’s true, I am delighful and upstanding, and I am no threat, and I didn’t abuse that position.

Other people, it would seem, aren’t quite as honest.

A London policeman who attempted to blackmail sex offenders and drug dealers has been jailed for six years.

PC Amerdeep Singh Johal, 29, was arrested by anti-corruption cops from Scotland Yard in July 2007. Johal was employed in checking names and address on the police database, called Crimint, on behalf of beat cops.

He abused the role to contact 11 convicted offenders and threaten to spill the beans on their crimes unless he was given “hush money”. Johal requested between £29,000 and £31,000 for his silence, threatening to tell work colleagues or neighbours of convicted sex offenders about their crimes. In one instance Johal demanded £89,000 as a “goodwill gesture”.

This one was caught; how many do you think have not been?

It gets worse, of course. There are occasional murderers that nanny lets have access to her databases.

Which means that No2ID aren’t scaremongering, they’re merely pointing out likelihoods.