[RAA-WG] Privacy of Data: UK Companies Come Up Short in Data Protection Inquiry Study

[Vittorio Bertola]

Debbie Garside ha scritto:
> Hi Jeff
> 
> Companies in the UK that hold personal data are required to register under
> the Data Protection Act.  It is very easy to do so and costs just £30.
> Companies in the UK not knowing whom to pass an enquiry to within an
> organization is indicative of the fact that in the UK 99.9% of people are
> not bothered about it and thus the requests to companies are few; the same
> cannot be said of Government and Local Government.  My company has been
> registered for 7 years and has received no requests for information.
> Believe it or not there are a lot of people out there who have better things
> to do with their time than to chase companies under the Data Protection or
> Freedom of Information Acts; thankfully this is the case in the UK.

It is quite the same in Italy, companies learned the few basic things 
they have to do - register certain activities with the Privacy 
Authority, provide certain opt-in/opt-out opportunities on commercial 
forms, add certain blurbs of text to contracts - and now the system runs 
pretty much on self-pilot; also, it generates sufficient confidence so 
that customers feel protected and rarely bother to ask directly.

Most cases of formal complaints are either about sensitive issues 
(treatment of health information, company surveillance on employees, 
etc.) or about companies that engage in unauthorized marketing 
activities; however they usually go from the customer to the Privacy 
Authority, rather than directly to the company.
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
-------->  finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/  <--------