Data Protection

Stand up for Digital Rights, Ireland.

In the Western world our rights are under attack. In the UK for example the policy of the Tory party is to abolish the Human Rights Act (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21726612). In the fast changing world of data and information private companies and governments alike go to great lengths to peer inside our digital lives in a manner …

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Wrong thinking about Devices

I’m addicted to the think. Every day, when not thoroughly occupied with the challenges of a client strategy or issue, I find myself drawn to hard thinking. Sometimes I even get people plying me with think. Like this past few weeks. Lots of think. One thing I’ve been asked to think about is the whole …

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Striking a balance in Data Protection Sanctions

It was reported yesterday that the Irish Government has issued a “discussion paper” on the proposed administrative sanctions under the new Data Protection Regulation. EDRI has criticised the proposals with reference to the “warning/dialogue/enforcement” approach taken by the Irish DPC. Billy Hawkes has, in the past, been at pains to clarify that the Irish DPC …

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Support your Local Sheriff–why the DPC needs us to help them help us.

Problem Statement The Irish Government is tripping over itself to win FDI from the new ‘Big Data’ enterprises. Whether it is promoting Ireland as a perfect location for Data Centres (it is, apparently we’re in a temperate Goldilocks zone) or chasing flagship investments in European headquarters for companies such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Zynga Games, Twitter, …

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Household Charge–A Data Protection kerfuffle in the making?

It’s time for my annual “roll a data protection hand grenade under something” blog post. Every year I try to be topical. And I try to apply a similar approach to spotting risks and getting them on the table for discussion as I do when conducting Privacy Impact Assessments or Compliance reviews. Only I’m less …

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Setting tone from the Top

In the rush to adopt new technologies and new ways of working, particularly When an organisation embarks on a change to systems and processes it is often very easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of enthusiasm for the new technology and the promised benefits of new ways of working. Nearly 2 years ago …

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Bruce Schneier on Privacy

Via the Twitters I came across this absolutely brilliant video of Bruce Schneier talking about data privacy (that’s the American for Data Protection). Bruce makes some great points. One of the key points that overlaps between Data Protection and Information Quality is where he tells us that Data is the pollution problem of the Information …

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The Who/What/How and Why

Data protection and Information Quality are linked in a number of ways. At one level, the EU Directive on Data Protection (95/46/EC) describes the underlying fundamental principles of Data Protection as “Principles for Data Quality”. While that is great pub quiz content, it helps to be able to make some more pragmatic and practical links …

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John Gormley, Commercial motor tax, and Data Protection Penalties

This post was originally published in August 2010 on the Irish Computer Society’s Data Protection blog. It has been republished here as it is my original work and I’m trying to get all my Data Protection musings in one place. Some links have been updated to point to different targets here and on my company’s …

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Putting Teeth In the Tiger

This post was originally published in August 2010 on the Irish Computer Society’s Data Protection Blog. I’ve copied it to here as it is my work and I want to put all my Data Protection musings in one place. Please feel free to go and look at it on the ICS site as well. The …

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