UK ISPA Give Police Secret Briefing and new CR&CL(UK) report lau

[David Swarbrick]

In message <0192D36B72803001*/c=gb/admd=bt/prmd=ukpo/o=royalmail/ou=lnmr
m1/s=Wardle/g=Clare/@MHS>, Clare Wardle <Clare.Wardle@postoffice.co.uk>
writes
>Nicholas Bohm wrote
>>ISPs should be no more free than banks, solicitors, doctors, accountants
>>etc to provide information about their customers as they think fit, except
>>when obliged by law by a judicially-issued warrant or a court order.
>
>Moreover if in the course of disclosing the messages to a third party such as 
>the police,they disclose personal data, which almost inevitably they will, they 
>need to check that the request to disclose meets the specific criteria of a 
>statutory ability to request information appropriate to the requesting party, 
>and that this statutory power is allowable under the Data Protection Directive, 
>or the ISP will be able to be sued by the people whose personal data it is. 

I think in this case Data Protection is an undeveloped and ineffective
protection. I think the general law of confidence, and the new Human
Rights Law properly used is likely to be more effective.

> It 
>is not open to ISPs or anyone else to decide to give personal data relating to 
>other people willy nilly without authorisation.  Fishing expeditions are 
>definitely out.

>From memory, they would say that the form provides a warranty (from a
police constable!!) that it is not a fishing expedition, and that they
would rely upon the specific exemptions in the Data Protection Act for
police investigations.


-- 
David Swarbrick, Solicitor. Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
Tel: +44(0)1484 722531 Fax: +44(0)1484 716617
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