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I'm still trying to figure out why UK driver records were in *Iowa*. No presidential/caucus monkey-business, I'm sure...

From the Times Online:

The personal details of three million UK learner drivers have been lost in the American state of Iowa, the Government announced tonight.

Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, told MPs this evening that the data was housed on a hard drive in the Iowa City offices of Pearson Driving Assessments Ltd, a company employed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

...

The learner drivers information went missing when the hard drive was lost in May, Ms Kelly said. The records contained the name of the test applicant, their postal address and telephone number but no details of any individual’s bank account or credit card.

Lost in May, reported in December? Egads! Given the strict regulations that many US state DMV's have on how their data is handled, I'm very surprised that the UK did not impose similar control requirements. C'mon people. It's just not that hard.

[props to DHS]