Maurice Frankel on 04 February 2003 at 18:51 said:-
"We're probably at cross purposes here. I'm not commenting one way or
the other on the court's ruling about the anti-crime poster. I'm
referring to the use that can be made of the ruling itself. Given
that the ruling must be made public by law, it falls within section
34 and section 35, and is exempt from the non-disclosure provisions,
including Principle 2."
We do seem to have been at cross purposes somewhat. The necessity to meet
principle 2 is, as you say over ridden by section 34, subject to the
controlling constraints and legal provisions surrounding the rights of the
data subject in any particular context.
To clarify my understanding. It is that the poster, I assume, will have
been legitimately constructed, after due consideration at the appropriate
levels within the relevant organisations. Those considerations were then
challenged in a court, which found on the data subjects behalf, stopping the
use of the posters. (I have not seen any information about the deliberations
or arguments involved). The media then legitimately ran coverage on the
issue, (I will assume utilising section 32) in doing so revealing details,
quite legitimately, of the person in the poster. Not knowing the
circumstances of the data subject and legal issues involved, and not having
any legal qualifications I can only voice my opinion, which is that
principle 2 issues were quite legitimately, totally bypassed.
Being slightly confusted by this the questions which then occured to me on
the balances regarding the data subjects privacy, related to supporting
legal structures (EUCHR and UN Declaration) and legislative compliance.
It is clearly not a simple matter to provide a balanced implementation of
Principle 2 in a free society, as freedoms need defending, come what may.
However the fundamental question revealed by this situation seemed to me to
be very similar to many others which arise. Can, or; How does a data
subject effectively exercise their legal rights of control of their data?
Kirstys' comments appear to be coming from a similar direction, but focusing
on the purpose the data was collected for originally, (The administration of
Justice) and the subsequent use of that data for other purposes; Which given
the other legislation, and without any consitutional document as a
reference, seems to take one back to the surrounding environmental
legislative framework the laws were drafted within, if any realistic sense
is to be made of them.
Regarding court results. With the publication of the daily court listings
on the Internet, the technology now provides many people with the ability to
compile or enquire about, should they wish, convictions data. The purposes
again become very important here, and relate back into this debate on the
effectiveness of maintaining use for purpose. A currently likely result of
the technological advance and growing practices is that, by default,
convictions data will become fully public material, I suppose it will be
easier that way. But will all of the legislative framework requirements be
met?
Hope this clarifies somewhat and enables some resolution to the debate.
An example in point which comes to mind is where a professional person who
had some photographs taken for the use of their 'manager' by publishing on
the Internet, later, having changed occupation, wished them not to be used
further. Could they (as the data subject) legitimately ask for processing
to be stopped? (No money had changed hands for the photographs).
Ian W
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