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1993-11-09
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∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙∙°∙°∙°∙°∙
∙ ∙
∙ ARE YOU A DATA CRIMINAL? ∙
∙ ∙
∙ by Don Bray ∙
∙ ∙
∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙°∙∙°∙°∙°∙°∙
In Guideline 1 to the Data Protection act it says "Data users are People
or Organisations who control the contents and use of a collection of
personal data" It also says "Data users...who should have registered but
have not have committed a criminal offence."
Hopefully this doesn't include you!
It might be just as well to know where to find out for certain about
these things. You won't find out in an article short enough to be
included in this newsletter but perhaps I can point you in the right
direction. To relieve your mind slightly: Guideline 1 is the introduction
to the act and it says (amongst other things) "The Act..... does not
cover..... paper files" and ".....does not cover personal data held by an
individual (e.g. a home computer user) in connection with personal,
family or household affairs....." but it does affect a club or society as
well as business organisations.
The whole object of the act is to protect individuals from people who
might spread false information about them - accidentally or maliciously -
by recording misinformation about them on a computer and circulating it
to others in a mailing list or something like that. The person to whom
information on a computer refers is known as a 'Data Subject' and as such
is given new rights under the act. This includes the right to know what
is said about them on a computer file - Which seems only reasonable. To
do this it is necessary to know who has a record about you and what it
says. If the act or something like it had not been passed this country
would not have been able to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on
Data Protection. This could well have resulted in European Countries
being unwilling to allow data to flow from them to us and business with
mainland Europe would have been even more difficult than it is and firms
in this country might well take their factories and offices elsewhere.
Someone needs to keep a register of people and firms who keep such
records and the person given the task is (you've guessed it) The Data
Protection Registrar. His brief is to set up such a register, to make
sure that people comply with the Data Protection Principles defined in
the act, encourage the development of good Codes of Practice to help
people and companies to comply and to consider complaints against those
who don't.
The Registrar's other job is to 'Spread information about the act and how
it works' so, in closing, here is how to get a lot more information for
yourself. All or any of the guidelines referred to are available free of
charge (well they were when I got mine last autumn) from:
Office of the Data Protection Registrar
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Alternatively literature may be ordered by telephone on: (0625) 535777.
These guidelines have been edited by Plain English Campaign and in my
opinion they have done a first rate job. I found them positively easy to
understand.
They are:-
1 Introduction to the Act
2 The Definitions
3 The Register and Registration
4 The Data Protection Principles
5 Individual Rights
6 The Exemptions
7 Enforcement and Appeals
8 Summary for Computer Bureaux
Alternatively the Registrar issues Guidance Notes which are shorter and
deal with specific issues in more detail. You may not know the answers
but you now know a Registrar who does.
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Thanks for the info, Don, but the Data Protection Act suffers from the
same problems as Health and Safety at Work legislation and the Factory
Inspectorate; the law can say whatever it wants to, but if you don't have
enough staff or resources, then how can you enforce it? And the reason
it's like that is because of 15 years of government cuts. But don't
forget, we're getting a better and more cost-effective service.
You can request details of any file containing information about yourself
(provided it isn't Classified or restricted under the Official Secrets
Act), but organisations can make 'a small charge' for supplying it. I
seem to remember that it's £10 a time, and that, say, asking to see any
records that the police may hold about you could cost you £30 - £40, and
you still wouldn't get to see any misinformation, malicious tip-offs, or
rumours that they'd collated at any time. That's 'classified', and not
available to the public. It reminds me of the old anarchist saying, that
"If voting changed anything it'd be made illegal."
JFW
~~~~~eof~~~~~