I suppose it depends upon what the aims of the board are. If, instead of the
description you gave, it said "An independent local portal, aiming to
help xxxxxxxxxxxx people (past and present) to find and communicate with
me." And the people were invited to: "Register on xxxxxxxxxxxxx and
stay in touch with me, make me your new friend, share memories, ideas,
photos, have your say on local issues... whatever! It's free, safe and
friendly. Have fun!"
Or if the person stated on the website that it was for his own recreational
amusement, I would agree with you that it was the person's own personal and
domestic purpose.
However, as he suggests they communicate "with each other" it suggests a
degree of autonomy and I suspect they might be a little peeved if he has only set
up the website with his own pleasure in mind. What at first may appear
altruistic would quickly be recognised as a blatant attempt to achieve some personal
gratification from reading the postings.
I would suspect that dating agencies, even the ones allowing the applicants
to post their details themselves, would be classed as data controllers. I
think also that message board controllers who require participants to register,
are also data controllers. If everyone on the site was encouraged to use a
pseudonym, give false (or no) details about their age or location, in order to
make it non-personal data, other problems would arise especially when trying to
enforce the rules.
I think the best bet is to either not ask the participants to register their
details or to register under the DPA. I know that this may seem a little OTT,
but my understanding is that this exemption was intended to cover the use of
home computers for birthday lists, personal address books, etc. If it extends
to collecting details from complete strangers, finding out about their
interests, monitoring their messages and so on, I would be very surprised.
Mind you, I was very surprised when Durant lost his appeal so it shows you
how much I know about the subject.
Ian B
---------
In a message dated 07/11/05 15:17:55 GMT Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> "An independent local portal, aiming to
> help xxxxxxxxxxxx people (past and present) to find and communicate with
> each other."
>
> The home page of the board invites people to "Register on xxxxxxxxxxxxx and
> stay in touch with old friends, make new friends, share memories, ideas,
> photos, have your say on local issues... whatever! It's free, safe and
> friendly. Have fun!"
>
>
Ian Buckland
Keep I.T. Legal Ltd
(Reg: 3822335)
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