RunningWithBulls.com - The curse of Sanfermin

Conor Ryan of the Examiner has a piece in todays paper on Privacy International’s Freedom Of Information survey released yesterday.

03 November 2006

Fears of threat to personal information

By Conor Ryan
LEGISLATION enacted by the Government has seriously damaged an individual’s right to keep their personal information private, according to an international civil rights watchdog.

It has also eroded public access to information.

London-based Privacy International (PI) has ranked the country 18th in a league of European Union members in protection of private information a government gathers about citizens, and was especially critical of our data retention legislation, which sees telecom companies holding phone records and tracing our movements for three years.

Two recent pieces of legislation had a significant impact on PI’s negative assessment of the country’s laws.

In its review, PI was critical of the manner in which Justice Minister Michael McDowell introduced a requirement for telecommunications data to be stored for three years in the terrorist offences section of the Criminal Justice Act 2005.

The author made specific reference to Mr McDowell’s assertion that a three-year, data retention rule was needed to fulfil our obligations to international counter-terrorism agreements.

PI said: “No international instruments as yet require data retention for a period of 36 months, and proposals put forward for such during the Irish presidency of the EU were rejected.

“It is also unfortunate that, given the length of time the government had to publish legislation on the issue, and despite repeated promises of dedicated legislation, they chose to insert the provisions as a last-minute amendment into a largely unrelated bill.�

PI also chastised the Government for the legislation that led to the establishment of the Private Rental Tenancy Board.

It was unhappy that tenants are obliged to register their Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) with the PRTB when this information can be used by any agency with the ability to access PPS numbers.

PI’s director Simon Davies said the policies being adopted by Ireland were unnecessary.

He said: “One of the most disappointing elements of the Irish situation is that there appears to be a lot of aping other countries.

“You don’t need an ID card in Ireland and what do you need data retention for. There has always been something unique about Ireland but it loses that if it becomes a surveillance society like the United States.�

Digital Rights Ireland, a group currently fighting against the Government’s right to retain electronic information, says it is disappointed the country is emerging as less transparent than less developed states.

“The maxim of ‘If you have nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear’, which the Government is fond of using, does not appear to apply to its own activities.�

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