AN INVESTIGATION by the Data Protection Commissioner's office into how the personal details of 170,000 Irish blood donors came to be on a laptop stolen in New York has found that the data on the computer is so highly encrypted that the chances of any third party accessing it are very remote.
The commissioner's office began its investigation after it emerged that the data had been handed over by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) to staff of the New York Blood Centre (NYBC) so it could be used to develop a software system to meet the needs of the Irish blood bank.
The data was on a laptop being carried by an NYBC staff member when he was mugged on February 7th. The laptop contained personal details of 171,324 blood donors and personal details of 3,294 patients whose blood tests would have been sent by hospitals to the IBTS for determination of their blood group.
In a statement yesterday the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner said it had completed its investigation and had concluded the transfer of the personal data by the IBTS to the NYBC did not constitute a breach of the Data Protection Acts.
"Furthermore, this office is satisfied that all appropriate procedures to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Data Protection Acts were put in place by the IBTS for the processing of the personal data in question by the NYBC.
"Finally, it is the conclusion of this office that the encryption in place on the laptop was sufficient to ensure that there is only the remotest of possibilities of access taking place to the personal data in question. Even in such an eventuality, the personal data in question does not contain any sensitive information in relation to any of the identifiable persons."