Striking the Right Balance between Privacy and Public Protect ion

[Ian G Batten]

On Tue, 22 Oct 2002, Roland Perry wrote:

> In message <20021022160205.GN25000@himalia.ftel.co.uk>, Ian G Batten
> <I.G.Batten@ftel.co.uk> writes
> >So why did the police serve me with a DPA S29 notice as their _first_
> >act?  Why not simply ask me the question?
> 
> Probably because most of Industry has an agreement that policemen who
> turn (|phone) up asking verbal questions are given a flea in their ear
> and told to put it in writing.

But I'm not in the ISP Industry.  I'm the IT Director of a manufacturing
company.  I have every respect for the LINX and for ISPA, but I don't
believe that they speak for us, and I don't believe that ``the
Industry'' can be stretched by you to include everyone who happens to
have an Internet connection.

> That's because Industry wants the
> requests to go through the proper channels, to CSP staff who are
> properly trained and can determine if the relevant DPA exemptions apply.

Perhaps, but outside the CSP industry, are we all expected to have such
trained staff?  The game's different, because the inquiry related to the
activities of my staff (or at least, someone using equipment only
available to my staff), not to a Customer.

I think the DPA notice was issued to intimidate a random company into
producing information, before it even occured to them to ``just ask''.

> Oh, and raise an invoice.

Damn, could I have done?

ian