
The European Commission has today escalated its action against the UK over the alleged conflict between the UK's interception of communications regime and the Data Protection Directive. The announcement is made in this Commission press release. To find out more, and to learn why this story has a curious connection with former high-profile police chief Alison Halford, pictured, please read on...
The Commission's action was triggered by concerns over the online behavioural advertising techniques used by Phorm, reported by Datonomy earlier in the year (see "Bad Phorm" 15 April). It sent the UK government a formal notice in April.
This second stage is a (not very scary sounding) "reasoned opinion", which sets out the three alleged deficiencies in the UK's regime, which is set out in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The alleged conflicts between UK law … Continue Reading ››

The senator, a “whistleblower” who claimed that island officials covered up child abuse at Jersey’s Haut de la Garenne children’s home, said he would not get a fair trial on the … Continue Reading ››
The International Journal of Law and Information Technology (IJLIT), a handsomely-produced three-times-a-year journal from Oxford University Press which is going quarterly in 2010, has asked me to draw the attention of Datonomy readers to two articles which touch on data protection issues, both of which are available to read online without charge. They are
* "When Rights Clash Online: The Tracking of P2p Copyright Infringements v the EC Personal Data Directive" by Okechukwu Benjamin Vincents (click here to read)The IJLIT website contains lots of information about the journal and its distinguished editorial panel, together with instructions for would-be authors, subscription data and the contents of the current edition.
* "The "Final" Privacy Frontier? Regulating Trans-Border Data Flows" by Gehan Gunasekara (click here to read).

The Court of Appeal reversed a decision of the Information Tribunal to order the deletion from the police national computer (PNC) of details of five old criminal convictions (nb the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 makes provision for the disregarding of 'spent' convictions for various purposes). According to the Tribunal, the police didn't have to keep conviction data on the PNC if it was no longer required for their core police operational purposes, rejecting evidence that the convictions had some value for those core purposes.
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The first of the changes on the near hoizon is the proposal to introduce custodial sentences of up to two years for the offence under section 55 of the DPA of knowing or reckless misuse of personal data. This is contained in an MOJ consultation paper published on … Continue Reading ››

The data is required for the creation of a new online data hub where civil servants can access statistics for research. Delivery of the data is said to be likely to cost the Met around £100,000.

The Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd, disappointed that the Commission had discontinued proceedings against the United Kingdom for allegedly breaching Community regulations by keeping Bavarian brews out of British pubs, wanted the names of a number of parties who attended a meeting in 1996, during the course of the Commission's administrative procedures, which Bavarian Lager wished to attend but was not permitted to do so. Supported by the European Data Protection Supervisor, the company sued to get those names. The Court of First Instance annulled the Commission's decision not … Continue Reading ››