"Peter Crosland" wrote in message
...
If anyone
wants to go deeper into it, I suggest that you contact the Data
Protection
Department of your local Council and in view of the recent publicity,
stand
by for confussion :-((

I am not sure if you are joking here but in my experience public bodies
frequently cite the DPA as an excuse for all sorts of things without
having
any real understanding of the rules.

Indeed. When I recently switched my electric account to NPower (who already
had my gas account) they said they werent allowed to go to the gas side of
NPower to get my bank detals and so forth 'because of the data protection
act'. Obviously complete ******** (its all the same company FFS) but its
such a crap and poorly worded law that it make an excellent excuse for
poorly organised companies, police forces and local authorities to use as a
scapegoat.

If you need advice then they go
elsewhere such as the Information Commissioner.


Fat lot of use that is, the way the DP act works is that no one knows what
it actually means and its left open to each individual to make their own
interpretation of the law. The penalty for being wrong is that you get
prosecuted and fined or jailed. Hence stupid actions such as Humberside
police. The Information Commissioner (who I think I heard speak about
Humberside Police recently) said pretty much this AFAICR, ie he (or she)
certainly wasnt going to be so bold as to actually state what was covered,
no doubt because they have no clue either.

--
Tumbleweed

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