Sir, – I am amazed by the data protection commissioner’s threat of legal action against Dublin City Library & Archive unless its electoral register database was removed from their website. This was done on the basis of potential “upset” to living people.
I have worked with registers of electors for many years and know how limited the information they provide is. They do not record age, marital status, occupation, physical or mental well-being or any other personal details. All that can be stated really is that “X lived at Y in 19XX and was entitled to vote under the franchise rules as then pertained in the State”. Where is the potential “upset” there?
Rather than threaten legal action and, in effect, place a blanket ban on the use of these records, I would challenge the data protection commissioner and her staff to provide examples of potential “upset” and to enter discussions with those who are compiling and managing such databases to see how these hazards can be avoided now and in the future. – Yours, etc,
DONAL MOORE,
Ferrybank,
Waterford.
Sir, – After reading Steven Smyrl's opinion piece ("Removal of Dublin electoral database unwarranted", Opinion & Analysis, August 26th), I was left wondering how the data protection commissioner's interpretation of "further processing data beyond the purpose for which it was originally obtained" would have an impact on my own hobby.
I am a member of a project transcribing gravestones, which we post online, recording all inscriptions no matter what the date on the stone. Data protection legislation does not extend to the dead, but many recent gravestones record names of those who will likely still be living, eg “erected by their loving son” or “in memory of” an infant daughter.
I cannot see how the data protection commissioner’s interpretation of “data processing” about living people in voters lists won’t then equally apply to my hobby. It’s total madness and about time the relevant Minister stepped in and called a halt to these stifling restrictions. – Yours, etc,
SALLY KEEGAN,
Rathgar, Dublin 6.
Sir, – Is it not time that the data protection commissioner banned the publication of the telephone directory? Surely this directory, published annually and widely distributed, is impinging on the privacy of a large section of Irish society? – Yours, etc,
DERMOT HOPKINS,
Dublin 14.