The new law has a concept of ‘right to be forgotten,’ but
ultimately it would be very hard to live in a developed country without having any online
footprint of some description - as there will always be
somebody processing data in relation to you. If you think about your daily life, you’re creating data paying for tube fare, paying by card or season
pass, or via cash that’s verified by CCTV. It’s become almost impossible to live your life in a
completely cash environment in which no one knows where you are and what you’ve been doing.
UK there has been issues with charities buying and selling mailing lists, which is something that could very easily happen to betting and gaming companies. Why does William Hill, for example, have all this information about me when I’ve never placed a bet with William Hill? Tat’s when it’s a problem.
How should the information be stored and where?
where should it be stored and how should it be used?
Te headline rule, is that a company can collect any data as long as it tells people what it is going to collect and what it’s going to use it for. So as long as betting and gaming company, when it collects data from me when I sign up and while I am playing, and my learns about my preferences for bingo and cricket, for example. as long as it tells me that is what it’s collecting and tells me that it will present offers to me, new games I might like, to improve the nature of games and target advertising, that’s fine because I will have agreed to that on sign-up by ticking privacy boxes at that stage. What it can’t do is look at your spending on bingo and try to sell me car financing or holidays. You can’t do that because it wasn’t what you agreed to on sign-up. You can’t use that data to sell ancillaries. However, there’s actually no limit to the usage of personal data as long as long as you’re informed as to exactly what the company intends to do with that data.
What you then have to do with that data is covered by more headline rules under the Data Protection Act. In the UK the Information Commissioner, who is the regulator, does occasionally take action, particularly against
companies that are involved in direct marketing, cold calling, excessive texting, etc. they take them to task, they fine them and put a stop to their activities. However, while it’s true that the individual must consent to their data being used theoretically, no individual reads the privacy policies or terms of admission, it is one of the things that will potentially change with the new law, but at the moment people just tend to tick a box to get the process out of the way as quickly as possible. Many of these policies are ridiculous and are not fairly giving the information for the user, even at a technical level. I think that everyone accepts that it’s a fiction.
Is there a body that polices this gathering?
No there isn’t general policing, you only find out when something has gone wrong, either because individuals make subject access requests, as they’re entitled to ask any company or organisation about the information they hold about them; which costs £10. Te individual is entitled to know that information is held about them and to be given details of that information. If you had no reason to suspect that a particular company holds information about you, but following a subject access request find that in fact they are storing lots of information, you might wonder why they have it? Recently in the
Tere are various things that allow you to store data abroad, one being that the individual has consented, which again could be part of the privacy policy that’s 100+ pages long, another reason could be because the country provides an adequate level of protection, such as Canada, Israel, Australia, Paraguay, etc., or third, you place a contract between you the UK operators and the overseas based entity, and there are a set of clauses the EU defines in a contract which gives you a level of protection. Te companies involved must, for example, be proper entities. You should have visited their premises, discussed with individuals in the business, I’ve seen video footage of their data centre - whatever it is they need to show steps have been taken to prove you’re working with actual companies.
Do you have a right to anonymity? Is there a right to be forgotten?
At some theoretical level, which I wouldn’t rely upon. Even the new law has a concept of ‘right to be forgotten,’ but ultimately it would be very hard to live in a developed country without having any online footprint of some description - as there will always be somebody processing data in relation to you. If you think about your daily life, you’re creating data paying for tube fare, paying by card or season pass, or via cash that’s verified by CCTV, you’ll have a swipe card to enter your office, a coffee from Starbucks with a loyalty card, it’s become impossible to live your life in a completely cash environment in which no one knows where you are and what you’ve been doing. You engage constantly in a
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