Stall The Ball

Damien has published the full response from the Data Protection Commissioner on his site with their permission.

14/08/2006 – Ben and Jerry ice-cream Spam
Thinkhouse PR notified
18/08/2006 - 3 Mobile Phone SPAM
22/08/2006 – Moviestar.ie SPAM

Leaving aside putting Ireland Offline onto their mailing list (personal or otherwise), what irritated me immensely about this was the initial implication by Thinkhouse PR that I had agreed to putting the Ireland Offline mailing address on Thinkhouse PR’s mailing list. I did not. And to be completely fair about it, if Thinkhouse had being sending us PRs about broadband products in Ireland neither Damien nor I would have been that bothered about it. Whether that constitutes SPAM or not I will leave to more legalistic minds.

But Ben and Jerry ice-cream?

I was glad to see that the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) agreed that Ireland Offline had not agreed to be put on their mailing list by agreeing (in this case me agreeing) to accept a PR on behalf of a client of theirs.

What truly annoyed me about this ruling by the DPC was the following line.

Thinkhouse PR have further advised us that when irelandoffline.org contacted them to request removal from the database, steps were taken to record this preference. The request took 2 days to process owing to the business absence of the staff member who updates the press lists.

TWO DAYS!

We’ll look at those dates again.

14/08/2006 – Ben and Jerry ice-cream Spam
Thinkhouse PR notified
18/08/2006 - 3 mobile Phone SPAM
22/08/2006 – Moviestar.ie SPAM

Now I appreciate advanced mathematics isn’t everyone’s forte particularly the DPC so I’ll make this as simple as possible.

22 – 14 = ?

Hmmm

4 from 2 doesn’t go.

4 from 12 is ……8

Carry over the 1

2 from 2 is 0

So 08 or getting rid of the leading 0 gives us 8

8 days.

Now let's look at the actual dates. The 8th and 22nd were Tuesdays with one weekend in between. No bank holidays so 8 – 2 = 6 working days.

SIX and that is being generous assuming that the mailing list was updated on the 22nd of August.

To my mind this looks like the DPC read the Thinkhouse PR response, took it at face value, didn’t bother to re read Damien’s correspondence to see if the facts matched up with the attached copies of Correspondences that Damien supplied.

So what happens if you disagree with the DPC ruling? According to the DPC website, go to the district court.

Of course this assumes you wish to take the risk of initiating legal costs, bearing the costs and possibly loosing. However what the DPC website fails to mention is that you can complain to the European Data Protection Supervisor and in particular to Mr Peter HUSTINX and Mr Joaquin BAYO DELGADO who are appointed for a term of five years European Data Protection Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor.

The relevant bit of that PDF is

Any person or business may lodge a complaint with the Commission about an alleged violation of Community law by a Member State.
The European Commission is responsible for ensuring that Community law is applied properly in the Member States. If necessary, the Commission reminds Member States of their responsibilities for implementing Community law on time and for enforcing it properly.
In some cases, if a Member State fails to fulfil these obligations, the Commission may need to initiate proceedings before the European Court of Justice, which decides whether or not Community law has been infringed.
You will not have to prove that you are directly affected by the infringement that you allege.
However, disputes between private parties cannot be settled by the Commission in this context.
You will not be charged for making a complaint and you do not have to seek the assistance of a lawyer. Remember to include relevant information and documentation (e.g. relevant national rules) when making your complaint.
You can complain to the Commission by writing to:
Commission of the European Communities (for the attention of the Secretary-General),
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200,
B-1049 Brussels
or by using the standard complaint form available on request from the Commission’s offices in the Member States and from the Internet at http://europa.eu.int/comm/sg/lexcomm

So anyone can make a complaint to the EU about the DPC ruling as “You will not have to prove that you are directly affected by the infringement that you allege.”

Anybody at all.

Anyone.