WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?

We call them “data protection duck outs”.  The New Zealanders call them “BOTPAs” (standing for “Because of the Privacy Act”).  Organisations do something silly, and then blame it on data protection legislation.

There’s a nice recent example. A parcel was addressed to a 9 day old baby.  Initially the Royal Mail wouldn’t deliver it to her grandfather, apparently because the Data Protection Act required the baby to sign for it personally.  Not surprisingly, the ICO has confirmed that the Act does not require anything of the kind.