Using the Data Protection Act for revenge.

[toad_oftoadhall]

I seem to recall form a show on TV that for £10 I can request all the information an organisation has on me.

Video/E-Mail/Documents the lot.

Gwent & South Wales Police have narked me a bit recently.

Is it as simple as sending a letter and a cheque for £10 to both organisations?

They have 3 photo's a couple of letters to the CC and some bank details.

If I don't get all the information I know they have am I able to cause further trouble?

>>> Edited by toad_oftoadhall on Friday 20th June 08:14

[Flat in Fifth]

"I seem to recall form a show on TV that for £10 I can request all the information an organisation has on me.
Video/E-Mail/Documents the lot.
Gwent & South Wales Police have narked me a bit recently.
Is it as simple as sending a letter and a cheque for £10 to both organisations? "

Hey up Toad,

TV prog was Mark Thomas Product

if you go to his site www.mtcp.co.uk you can see a link to a draft of the document you need. Not being sanctimonious but you'll have to sort the spelling and punctuation on it though.

cheers,

FiF

[pbrettle]

Yes, you can invoke the Data Protection Act and receive COPIES of all of the data that is held on you by a particular organisation. They have to produce it all and cannot with hold anything (unless it is purtaining to a pending criminal investigation, censored or against the national interest). But in general you can get everything.

They have a fair period of time to get this information and should be able to produce something within a month. The payment is there as a covering fee for the effort involved (however, do be aware that a government department that I know worked out that their DPA retrievals that they had to do worked out at £40K each!!!). If they with hold information that you know they have then you can report them to the DP Registrar and have then investigated. They then must show compliance with the Act and release anything and everything needed....

However, as I mentioned above - it is currently thought that retreival from some government agencies cost a lot of money (internal time and effort to get the data, copy it etc - it VERY quickly adds up as you must remember that a lot of this isnt computerised and is usually stored off-site - hence the large costs in tracking it down). Therefore be VERY CAREFUL doing this - its ok to do it to a bank, but a government department is getting bad and a police force is really bad - they could make your life very bad for doing this.

And, finally you would be tying up quite a few police employees (either civilian contractors or police themselves) on something that is not necessarily police business - criticise them all you like, but wasting time and diverting them away from their jobs doesnt necessarily help.... its a bit two faced...

Cheers,

Paul

[bogie]

I contacted the Data Protection Registrar and reported the Welsh Scamera partnership for sending out other peoples confidential details in error etc as I have in my possession other persons NIP and driver details etc.....so far in 3 months Ive heard absolutely nothing from the registrar...obviously better things to do than investigate the data systems used by the scamera partnership...now if that was another legit company being slack with individuals info I think they would have done something...typical

[gshughes]

bogie said:

I contacted the Data Protection Registrar and reported the Welsh Scamera partnership for sending out other peoples confidential details in error etc as I have in my possession other persons NIP and driver details etc.....so far in 3 months Ive heard absolutely nothing from the registrar...obviously better things to do than investigate the data systems used by the scamera partnership...now if that was another legit company being slack with individuals info I think they would have done something...typical

Chase them up and ask them how they are getting on

[pbrettle]

Christ, get that chased - you have a 'reasonable timescale' to respond and its usually a month or two - failure to respond with a GOOD excuse is good enough to contact the Data Protection Registrar to have them audited for failure to comply with the law....

Trust me - NEVER let yourself be audited by the DPR - is painful and very invasive! As a company or organisation it is very expensive.... do it and get the buggers sorted. Unlike the USA, here we have the protection of the DPA - your data is YOURS and no-one elses. If it is sent out in error then the sender has to prove that they have taken every available effort to prevent it from re-occuring....

Cheers,

Paul

[Eliminator]

When you chase, you could mention that in the absence of a reply you will take up the matter with the Ombudsman. That usually wakes up civil servants

[bogie]

thanks guys - I will chase them up, would love to see the Scamera parnerships systems audited