A friend of mine got banned from a fairly large forum recently, re-signed up a few times (against their t&c's) and was a little difficult shall we say.

One of the mods decided they'd had enough and changed his username to show his full name and address.

He emailed the main guy and this information was removed but when pushed to ask where the info had come from and who had done it, he was given the brush off.

This data is now in google cache - Are they still breaching the DP act and can my friend do anything about it - Report to ICO?

Cheers

 

Ask the authorities!

Les

 

I would suggest that yes, they breached the data protection act by publishing the info, but as for it being in google cache, i'm not sure. there is probably a policy that would force google to remove it from their cache if you could show just cause.

 

Just been doing some checking with one of my colleagues. (I work in information security)

google hosting it is irrelevant...
the a that the original source published this data on the internet, which breaches the date protection act and data privacy act is the issue, and they are still liable for this.
the ICO would definitely take an interest and can levy fines of up to 1 million against the responsible party. (in this case, the forum, not the specific individual moderator).

According to my colleague, to get the data removed from google's cache the original source of the data (i.e. the forum) must request its removal rather than the request coming from your friend.

If he's seriously upset (and I would be!) then he needs to contact the forum and read them the riot act... mention breach of the data protection act, data privacy act, ICO, and the fact that they have illegally published personally identifiable information on the internet that could be used for any number of criminal activities including identity theft and fraud...

hope that helps.

 

Agreed. I believe this is against the law.
Having been a victim of identity theft, I would be slightly miffed to say the least.
I wouldn't go in all guns blazing though. Just send a well constructed email, pointing out how they have breached the data protection legislation act.

This may help:
http://www.dpa.lancs.ac.uk/summary.htm

I have to ask though, what did you friend do to upset them?

 

The postman knows your name and address, you can get the name and address of anyone (who is on the electoral roll) in the UK on 192.com.

I'm struggling to see why it's such sacred information? when say compared to your bank accounts or medical information.

 

Is he a troll?

 

The most likely answer is no to both. Tell him to read through the exemption rules and apply it to whatever forum it is.