Cyber fears

SIR – Graham Senior-Milne (Letters, July 2) comments on the hacking of Parliamentary computer systems, and suggests to MPs: “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

If only this were true. Given the mass-surveillance systems operating in Britain and online, it is the “false positive” that we all have to fear.

While this might more usually occur in the medical field, it also occurs throughout computer systems, and particularly in surveillance software.

“But I wasn’t there!” cries the innocent citizen. “Ah, but the facial recognition and vehicle identification systems say that you were,” says the prosecutor. “And computers never lie.” S C McCarthy

Newark, Nottinghamshire

SIR–Rear Admiral J AL Myres (Letters, July 2) discusses the relative safety of snail mail over email.

However, if experience at my GP’s surgery is any guide, administrators immediately file a digital image of any letter containing information from or about a patient, so it can be read on the surgery IT system by all authorised colleagues (or anyone who can hack it). Paul Miskin Loughborough, Leicestershire

SIR – If Rear Admiral Myres thinks that only his MP will see his letters, he should think again.

As a former civil servant, I can tell him that any letter sent to an MP requiring a response will be forwarded to the appropriate ministry. It will then be passed down to a junior official. The details, including the sender, will be entered on a database. Martin Tustin Callosa d’en Sarrià, Alicante, Spain