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back to article Public shows new data protection nous

Individuals' awareness of their rights under the Data Protection Act (DPA) has reached an all time high, according to new research published from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). It said 90 per cent of individuals know they have a right to see information that an organisation holds about them compared to 74 per …

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  1. AndyB
    Black Helicopters

    People are concerned......

    ##########################

    "It also shows that 94 per cent of individuals are concerned that organisations are selling their personal details to other organisations without permission."

    ##########################

    And yet we are told that most people are in favour of the biggest and most intrusive database of personal details ever conceived being run by an organisation that has shown time and time again that it cannot be trusted with private data.

    I am, of course, referring to our wholly trustworthy Government and their plans for national ID cards.

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  2. Alexander Hanff
    Flame

    People are aware but ICO do nothing to enforce those rights

    Does this mean that ICO will now remove their fingers from their collective asses and actually help people enforce those rights, which so far they have failed remarkably at doing? Or will they simply continue as the useless and toothless organisation they always have been, slapping companies on the wrist or issuing non consequential fines.

    The biggest problem with the protection of personal data in the UK is ICO themselves. Since they are nothing like part of the solution, clearly they are part of the problem.

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  3. David Harper

    Pity that the ICO is a paper tiger

    Earlier this year, I sought a ruling from the Information Commissioner's Office after I tried to exercise my rights under the Section 10 of the Data Protection Act to restrict the ways in which my bank could use my personal data. This was after the well-publicised theft of one of the bank's laptops containing personal data on millions of customers.

    My bank claimed that its terms and conditions exempted it from compliance with a Section 10 instruction, so I made a formal complaint to the ICO.

    After a six-month delay, I finally received a letter from the ICO advising me that it could not adjudicate on the matter, and that my only remedy was to take my bank to court to get a legal judgement.

    If the government's own regulatory body cannot police the Data Protection Act, what is the point of the ICO? Like the Financial Services Authority, it's a paper tiger.

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Warning Will Robinson - Run away

    "People now consider protecting their personal information as the second most socially important issue above the NHS"

    Enter Stage left Labours Gordon "Brave Heart" Brown.

    "I need more votes let me play with the Data Protection act to protect you (you English pigs)"

    while thinking "those ID cards will give me more information until I know everything including your inside leg measurements then I can sell it to the highest bidder and make it constitutional ha ha"

    :-(

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  5. matt
    Thumb Down

    second most socially important issue?

    "People now consider protecting their personal information as the second most socially important issue above the NHS, national security, and environmental issues."

    I think not!

    I bet they let on what the survey was about before asking them this question. The only way this question could work is if its the first question they asked, without telling them what the survey was about. Then they would need to say "List your top five socially important issues".

    If they did that, it wouldnt appear in the top five.

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  6. adnim

    I just want

    The right to demand any and all data held about me on any system to be deleted. And my demands to be legally enforcible.

    Who gave Experian or any other data miners the right to store and the sell the world and his dog my financial history, personal information and spending habits? What right do they have to actually hold all this data?

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  7. Chris Branch

    @adnim

    Rights are taken away, not given... the sooner arbitrary organisations are actively denied the ability to collect all our data for who-knows-what purpose the better.

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  8. Shakje

    Re: Warning Will Robinson - Run away

    Using his nationality as part of an attack on his character is clearly at least verging on racist (whether or not the race in question is part of the UK). This is equivalent to suggesting that an Irish politician wants to blow up London because he is Irish.

    Reminds me of the editor of the Sun (in England, got a slightly weird name, not going to look it up) and his recent tirade on Question Time against Gordon Brown based purely on the fact that he is Scottish, and "all Scots want is money".

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