Lambeth police in privacy breach as they send me personal details of Clapham woman

[editor]

Bloody hell, this is sloppy.

A few days ago I wrote to Lambeth to ask them why they'd parked a huge police van on the green space outside my block. I've now just received a reply aimed at someone else entirely, with the email containing the name, email, telephone number and full home address of a female member of the public making a complaint about an incident in Clapham.

This rather makes me wonder where my email (and personal details) have ended up, and how many other emails have been sent out to the wrong person...

 

[editor]

It's worth noting that the complaint was about teenage motorbikers causing a disturbance outside her house, so it was potentially putting her at risk/hassle if they'd found out that she'd been talking to the police about them.

 

[salem]

Technically should be reported to the Information Commissioner (Home) - whether it's worth the hassle for you to chase up is another matter.

 

[Voley]

Technically should be reported to the Information Commissioner (Home) - whether it's worth the hassle for you to chase up is another matter.

Yep. Worth reminding them that the Data Protection Act is there for a reason.

 

[snadge]

Police are extremely fond of this sort of crap with no repercussions, people have been severely hurt or even murdered because of their lax data security and fact checking

 

[editor]

Police are extremely fond of this sort of crap with no repercussions, people have been severely hurt or even murdered because of their lax data security and fact checking

Indeed and that's why I'm seeing what kind of response I could give to them.

 

[Pickman's model]

Where I used to work they sent me an email in the chain of which were details of a man making allegations of child sexual abuse, details of the abuse and details of the alleged abuser.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Technically should be reported to the Information Commissioner (Home) - whether it's worth the hassle for you to chase up is another matter.

As a rule the ICO expects people to complain to the data controller in the first instance, to allow them to attempt to put things right. I'd guess the Met have a standard police complaints procedure and if their response is crap I'd then raise it with the ICO.

Although this case doesn't seem to contain sensitive personal data as far as I can tell, the ICO will look at the risks to the data subjects in general so worth providing any local context about where the random woman lives.

 

[Sirena]

Bloody hell, this is sloppy.

A few days ago I wrote to Lambeth to ask them why they'd parked a huge police van on the green space outside my block. I've now just received a reply aimed at someone else entirely, with the email containing the name, email, telephone number and full home address of a female member of the public making a complaint about an incident in Clapham.

This rather makes me wonder where my email (and personal details) have ended up, and how many other emails have been sent out to the wrong person...

It's not the polis but it's not as sloppy as this one....

Solicitor mistakenly sent girl's address to father who murdered her

 

[Rushy]

My ex once got an email from Lambeth Environmental Services telling her that under no circumstances could they share the details of someone who had made a noise complaint about a party we'd had, as it might put them at risk. And attached a letter addressed to our neighbour saying they had dealt with their complaint against us.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

My ex once got an email from Lambeth Environmental Services telling her that under no circumstances could they share the details of someone who had made a noise complaint about a party we'd had, as it might put them at risk. And attached a letter addressed to our neighbour saying they had dealt with their complaint against us.

 

[alex_]

As a rule the ICO expects people to complain to the data controller in the first instance, to allow them to attempt to put things right. I'd guess the Met have a standard police complaints procedure and if their response is crap I'd then raise it with the ICO.

Although this case doesn't seem to contain sensitive personal data as far as I can tell, the ICO will look at the risks to the data subjects in general so worth providing any local context about where the random woman lives.

I Disagree in the example ed gives its all personal data.

Alex

 

[cuppa tee]

Not as serious as any of the above but...one time I picked up my repeat prescription from the doctors and off I go to the pharmacy.....upon handing the scrip in I was surprised to see the pharmacist return with a large cardboard box about a foot long and 4 inches across when I was only expecting a couple of boxes of pills. " wtf is that" I exclaimed and upon closer inspection it became apparent I had been given the wrong scrip by the doctors receptionist, and in the box was a vacuum pump for sorting out "male problems" and so the scrip was handed back to me so I could take it back to the surgery and get the right one, it had all the details of the intended recipient on it, fortunately I am not the sort to muck about for the lols but had someone mischievous found themself in my shoes it could have been very embarrassing for some poor soul.....

 

[Rushy]

Not funny. My ex has another fourteen years before she can be considered for parole.

 

[Brixton Hatter]

Bloody hell, this is sloppy.

A few days ago I wrote to Lambeth to ask them why they'd parked a huge police van on the green space outside my block. I've now just received a reply aimed at someone else entirely, with the email containing the name, email, telephone number and full home address of a female member of the public making a complaint about an incident in Clapham.

This rather makes me wonder where my email (and personal details) have ended up, and how many other emails have been sent out to the wrong person...

definite breach of the data protection act. The police need to inform the woman involved and apologise to her, as well as sorting out their systems so it doesnt happen again. They truly are fucking useless.

 

[Pickman's model]

definite breach of the data protection act. The police need to inform the woman involved and apologise to her, as well as sorting out their systems so it doesnt happen again. They truly are fucking useless.

Every time the cops kill someone they say they'll learn lessons from whatever inquiry or review. Yet they keep killing people. I wouldn't hold out much hope of their sorting out their systems tbh.

 

[Pickman's model]

Not funny. My ex has another fourteen years before she can be considered for parole.

She didn't take the breakup too well then I see.

 

[existentialist]

I Disagree in the example ed gives its all personal data.

Alex

I think he's making a distinction in regard to sensitive personal data. No idea if there's a legal distinction there, though.

 

[Pickman's model]

I think he's making a distinction in regard to sensitive personal data. No idea if there's a legal distinction there, though.

Data protection act protects personal data, which might be an entry in a school punishment book from the 1970s, an address for an applicant for a market license in council minutes of the 1960s or so much else. Makes the archivist's job tricky.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I Disagree in the example ed gives its all personal data.

Alex

I think he's making a distinction in regard to sensitive personal data. No idea if there's a legal distinction there, though.

I was drawing the distinction between personal data and sensitive personal data, as defined in the DPA. Based on the description of the information it looks like it wouldn't be considered sensitive personal data (although I don't know the full details obviously). Both cases appear to be complaints/questions about actions or behaviours of third parties - rather than (in the woman's case) details of any offences she may have committed.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/UKPGA/1998/29/contents - sections 1 and 2 define the meanings.

There are a few key differences between the two - such as the need to meet one or more of the conditions for processing in Schedule 3 in addition to Schedule 2, for example. In essence, processing sensitive personal data (as opposed to 'ordinary' personal data) imposes additional statutory obligations on the data controller.

Data protection act protects personal data, which might be an entry in a school punishment book from the 1970s, an address for an applicant for a market license in council minutes of the 1960s or so much else. Makes the archivist's job tricky.

I bet the school punishment book was several volumes by the time you left school.

 

[Pickman's model]

I bet the school punishment book was several volumes by the time you left school.

I was only sent to the headmaster twice that I recall, once when someone had forgotten his copy of the long, the short and the tall and we had to write an essay in class for gcse coursework and I tore my copy in half and handed it to him with the words, you should be ok now; the second time for writing an offensive essay, again in English, whose thesis was macbeth the hero of the Scottish play and the villains Macduff et al. Juvenile stuff, but got an a in eng lit and a b in eng as opposed to the 2 d's the teacher predicted. My grades despite and not because of the teacher, for whom I still feel some rancour more than a decade after his death.

 

[alex_]

I think he's making a distinction in regard to sensitive personal data. No idea if there's a legal distinction there, though.

Sorry - schoolboy error ! It's still a breach - though below the reporting threshold. However in the police mistakes like this can cause all sorts of issues, so you'd have thought they'd be hot on it.

Alex

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Sorry - schoolboy error ! It's still a breach - though below the reporting threshold. However in the police mistakes like this can cause all sorts of issues, so you'd have thought they'd be hot on it.

Alex

The consequences can be serious when the police fuck up, so I'd hope they do take it seriously. But mistakes like this can't be completely designed out of the process as long as humans are involved.

 

[shygirl]

The police accidentally sent personal details of witnesses (of a stabbing in Streatham) to the defence solicitor and perp. Our addresses and phone numbers were flagged by the police, but luckily the solicitor managed to get the papers back before the guy had read them. It actually made me think about looking the other way if shit goes down, because I'd hate to be put in that position again.

 

[editor]

Actually I made a booboo: turns out that I was sent the details of a man (I assumed it was a female name my bad).

 

[alex_]

The consequences can be serious when the police fuck up, so I'd hope they do take it seriously. But mistakes like this can't be completely designed out of the process as long as humans are involved.

While technically this is correct, for stuff like this and the post above re stabbing, you can put manual checks (literally maker checker) in place to make sure errors like this are literally one in a million.

However they clearly havent because it's too expensive.

This would be something they could easily automate if they didn't have shit IT.

Alex

 

[editor]

While technically this is correct, for stuff like this and the post above re stabbing, you can put manual checks (literally maker checker) in place to make sure errors like this are literally one in a million.

However they clearly havent because it's too expensive.

This would be something they could easily automate if they didn't have shit IT.

Alex

A simple way to fix it would be: don't include the full details of the complaint in a simple response.

 

[alex_]

A simple way to fix it would be: don't include the full details of the complaint in a simple response.

Isn't the issue more likely to be attaching the wrong random bits of paper on your desk rather than deliberately attaching the full complaint ?

(Surely they can't be that stupid?)

Alex

 

[editor]

Isn't the issue more likely to be attaching the wrong random bits of paper on your desk rather than deliberately attaching the full complaint ?

(Surely they can't be that stupid?)

Alex

This was an email. They - somehow - attached my email address to someone else's complaint and then quoted me the full contents of the form they'd filled in. I want to know where the fuck my reply actually went.

 

[alex_]

This was an email. They - somehow - attached my email address to someone else's complaint and then quoted me the full contents of the form they'd filled in. I want to know where the fuck my reply actually went.

Suggests like it's all really shitty manual mail merge, must be a terrible place to work if they are just cutting and pasting stuff about

Alex