Damien Mulley

Baaaa. More continued bullshit from one of the most ineffectual entities in this state. The Data Protection Commissioner, the one that releases a report with go-faster stripes each year and makes a mini-celebrity out of one case while doing nothing for everything else is now saying they’ll be getting tougher on spammers. Complete and utter bollox. They have a “new weapon” against spammers. Which they’ll keep well polished and stored away for safety no doubt.

2008 they let people reoffend again and again. 2007 they let someone go after harassing thousands because it was their first offence.

How many companies were fined last year after being investigated? How many were dragged through the courts? How many got away with blue murder?

Photo owned by Oceanik (cc)

I’d FOI them for this information but their smug press officer got great kicks telling me a while back on the phone that they don’t come under FOI. It was suggested I send in an information request when I asked for details about the Bank of Ireland laptop thefts. So this is what I sent in:

RTE last week reported that the Data Protection Commissioner’s Office delivered a report to Bank of Ireland which included recommendations to prevent future data loss. Bank of Ireland said they would not release that report. I was looking for said report but obviously with the commercially sensitive information removed. I doubt that all the report is giving away BOI’s IP.

I also wanted to get details of the costs involved in putting that report together. Numbers of staff and manhours involved.

This is what I got back:

As you are aware, no regulations are currently in force specifying this office as a body to which the Freedom of Information Acts apply. As a matter of good practice and with due regard to the privacy of the parties involved, we endeavour to keep both data subjects and data controllers informed of the progress of investigations. This does not apply to your request. Having reviewed your request, I won’t release any of this information to you.

The DPC blow taxpayer money to advise a Bank but refuse to disclose how much it cost and what advice it was. Course there’s a trend when it comes to using taxmoney to keep banks happy. It’s a shame this shower didn’t get culled in the budget cuts because sometimes an expensive and out of synch clock is more dangerous than no clock.

If Pat is Santa, I’m an elf. I’ve been given four prizes to give away on this here blog in exchange for promoting the Jack and Jill Foundation who recycle mobile phones. Just to note Jack and Jill didn’t provide the prizes but a supporter of theirs and it was thanks to Santa that they contacted me about this.

What does the Foundation do?

The Foundation provides early intervention home respite to families with children up to the age of 4, with severe neuro developmental delay and palliative conditions requiring extensive medical and nursing care at home.

Here’s the deal. For everyone that donates one or more mobile phones to the charity, they’ll be entered into a draw for three prizes (First, second and third out of hat) – a Nokia 5220, a Voyager 815 bluetooth headset and an Elextex rubberised portable keyboard for phones. The blogger who gets these people to donate phones will also be entered into a draw for a Nokia 810 Internet Tablet.

Donating a phone is dead simple as you drop the phone and charger (if you have it) in a jiffy bag and send it to their freepost address: The Jack and Jill Mobile Appeal, Freepost, Ratoath Road , Finglas, Dublin 11

If you collect 10 phones they’ll even send a courier to you.

So if you’re a blogger/run a blog, send your readers this way (this is not a link building thing so nofollow away) making sure they have you as the referer (as in “JohnnyBlogs sent me”) and you could win a Nokia 810 Internet Tablet and if you want to donate a phone leave a comment on this post with the make/model of the phone you’re donating and which blogger sent you this way. Yes, you can donate a phone and refer your own blog so you can be in two draws.

It’d be interesting to see which blog sends the most referers. Game on blogger people!