Our reporter also says that the driver warned "if a photo of them appeared on the web site, they would be prosecuted".
This raised an interesting question, one we raised with the Information Commissioners Office, namely what are the data protection rules surrounding photographs of vehicles in public places.
We now have a response
This raised an interesting question, one we raised with the Information Commissioners Office, namely what are the data protection rules surrounding photographs of vehicles in public places.
We now have a response
From: casework at ico.gsi.gov.uk
Date: Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 11:22 AMSo there you have it. Cars with registration numbers yes, people on their own, OK, but photographs of the drivers with the reg nos, maybe. Interesting. We shall have to consider this. Good email signature.
Subject: Data Protection Query[Ref. ENQ0341761]
To: bristol.traffic at gmail.com
19th August 2010
Case Reference Number ENQ0341761
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your email.
In order to fall under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 the data concerned must be personal data; that is data from which a living individual can be identified. Vehicles and their registration numbers in isolation from any other information are not considered to be personal data.
As such its seems unlikely that the Data Protection Act 1998 will apply to the situation you outline. You may need to ensure that you do not include images of the drivers when these pictures are taken as this could lead you into the area of data protection.
Obviously there may be other legal issues you will need to consider but these are not matters that this office could give you advice on.
I hope this clarifies the matter for you
Yours sincerely
Louise MacDonald
Lead Case Officer
____________________________________________________________________
The ICO’s mission is to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.
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9 comments:
People parking up around the hospital is often ridiculous. Good luck trying to encourage people to take public transport or cycle there - it's a homeopathic hospital so they probably believe that travelling there by any method other than the car to be the devil's work.
People parking up around the hospital is often ridiculous. Good luck trying to encourage people to take public transport or cycle there - it's a homeopathic hospital so they probably believe that travelling there by any method other than the car to be the devil's work.
I am not aware that homoeopathy is a religion in any normal meaning of the word - and, in any case, it is no longer an homoeopathic hospital.
So a van driver for the BRI is going to prosecute you? In which case how much does the NHS pay van drivers? And can I have a job as one because there's a number of legal actions I'd like to launch but lack the funds.
Or ... Is the NHS going to prosecute people photographing their vans? In which case is this a sensible use of public funds?
Or ... Is this kind of stupid, idle threat we seem to have to put up with these days from every two-bit idiot that works for the government?
Clearing e-mail signature disclaimers are the way to go.
Bristol Traffic's mission is to uphold motorists rights in their selfish interest, exposing transport by any method other than single occupancy vehicle use as subversive and maintaining privacy for law abiding individuals.
If you are not the intended recipient of this diatribe (and any attached photographic evidence), please inform the sender by return email and comment to the Bristol Evening Post immediately. Unauthorised road access, public transport use, efficient travel or commuting by cycle is not permitted.
Communication by this blog is not secure as messages can be intercepted and read by someone else. Therefore we strongly advise you not to email any information, which if disclosed to law enforcement officers or traffic wardens would be likely to cost you money. If you want us to respond by email you must realise that there can be no guarantee of privacy and your vehicle still appear on this blog.
Any email including its content may be monitored and used by the public and press for reasons of public security and for evidence on the war on motorists. Video on youtube may also be used. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you write or forward is within the bounds of the Daily Mail's editorial stance.
Bristol Traffic cannot guarantee that this message or any attachment is unlikely to offend. You should perform your own social responsibility checks.
Firstly, I'm pretty sure that no-one has ever been prosecuted under the DPA.
There needs to be a stronger public right to know defence.
I followed this link wondering if there would be something about ANPR. There are about 90 cameras in greater Bristol tracking cars' journeys via numberplates and storing the information for up to 2 years.
Probably a good thing to write to your MP about.
I don't know how many ANPR cameras there are in BRS, or their locations; the only one I know of in town is that "watchman" on whiteladies road.
I do have a (secured, anonymised) copy of the bath bluetooth dataset -and I'm providing the computer time for someone finishing their MSc to look at it. He's in the US but we are keeping the data and running the work in the UK, to make sure everything is controlled.
Anyone who is really worried about being tracked shouldn't worry about ANPR; that's just a Daily Mail fear story written by people that don't know what's cutting edge in computing. Oystercard movements, now they are far more details, bit AFAIK TfL only mine that for marketing and traffic flow.
Here, then are the things you do need to worry about:
* Twitter determining your location from your IP address or GPS-enabled phone and storing it, even if they only publish it if you enable it.
* Facebook's new facebook places application which pushes your location to their US-based servers.
* Apple Iphone4 software clause that says "all location data goes through Apple", meaning a datacentre in cupertino.
* Your sky satellite box uploading your TV viewing habits over the phone to somewhere.
* Google analytics tracking your browsing behaviour across multiple web sites and again, keeping them out of the EU.
ANPR? Overrated.
There are 90 cameras, or were 4 years ago when I last asked.
Oyster Cards are disturbing but at least voluntary. Can you still buy one with cash?
The bigger intrusion is the NHS database, which for some reason hasn't been scrapped yet. You have to opt-out of this one.
The ID cards database was designed to link all these bits of data together. That's why NuLabour never scrapped it in spite of the cost.
I'm not too bothered about Apple & Google. Neither have an army, 2 secret services or the ability to drum up rape charges on you.
Nor can they easily find out whose IP is whom.
I dream of bits of the NHS being able to share data; I have expressed my concerns about the inability of the BRI to get a prescription to my GP in less than two weeks. That doesn't mean the spine is the solution, but right now we don't have any reliable form of communication between bits of the system.
On a positive note, I now know how to forge any prescription. No need to bother faxing it to the GP on BRI notepaper, just turn up with a printout of some BRI email saying they sent it and they'll phone the number on the email up to issue whatever the (unauthenticated) person at the far end says.
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