In the next few months the full medical records of every NHS patient in England will start being SCOOPED up directly from GPs' computer systems by an organisation called the Health and Social Care Information Centre. They "share" this information (including selling it), sometimes anonymised, sometimes not, not only within the NHS but also with outside organisations such as researchers and pharmaceutical companies. For your convenience the government has changed the law so that the Data Protection Act doesn't allow GPs any say in this and you will automatically be opted in unless you object. •The NHS is sending out an extraordinarily thin "fact" sheet titled "Better information means better care" - not to you individually, but in amongst the Royal Mail junk mail leaflets, which you may just have thrown away. It doesn't include any opt-out form. •For an alternative, far more comprehensive, and sceptical view of this, a Hampshire GP has set up a simple website. Unlike the NHS information, it includes an opt-out form. http://care-data.info/