Numbskull the schizophrenic

[eddie]

our legs hurt from yesterday

really hurt

[Numbskull]

well numbskull and his many personalitys played a stunning game of cricket tonight - won with 3 overs to spare!

[brooner]

did you beat yourself in the process?

[Guest]

Well it's certainly not Trebor's brother cos he doesn't know which end of the bat to use. Sorry he can play French Cricket.

[FatBoy]

my point is that i think that if you know it comes from our house, then it must break the data protection act somehow

No it doesn't on 2 counts:

1) The information available from your computer doen't tell us who you are just where you are. DPA is to do with the identification of people from data. An IP address on its own gives no way of identifying the user.

2) Somewhere in the small print you didn't read when you signed up with your ISP would've stated all kinds of stuff that you agree to do/not do with regard to the DPA. Basically you probably signed your life away.

As for Numbskull - that amount of inane drivel it must be Trebor.

[Simon]

my point is that i think that if you know it comes from our house, then it must break the data protection act somehow

Ah. People claiming protection from laws they know nothing about and do not understand. Though it could be said that this is better than some Americans attempts to claim the First.

[chrisecurtis]

Any information that can be used to identify an individual is covered by the DPA so if someone has a fixed IP address and you have information as to who uses it (as in this case) then holding that information and publishing it is covered by the DPA, even if it is as trivial as knowing that the same computer was used to log in under two different log in names, provided you know who one of those logins belonged to.
Even so, the DPA does not give you control over who can use information about yourself, or how they use it. The person who uses and publishes the information must do so for proper reason and fairly. They have a duty to correct it if they have it wrong. They do not have to have your permission. They have to register with the Data Protection Registrar too.
An exception to registration is made where (as in this case) the information is incidental to voluntary participation in an online activity and the information is provided voluntarily. You would have to be careful with anything that was not provided voluntarily through the system or through posts - for example if you knew or published something about a forum member that had not come through the forum. Given the nature of some of the banter, this could be a lucrative field - I can hear the lawyers sharpening their pens!

[Numbskull]

Would openly like to point out that by trying to make a fresh start i have been humoured by people who are supposed to be grown up and mature - I thought this forum was limited to over 13's and yet it seems not
so while you all laugh it up, just stop and do something which i didn't used to do much

THINK

[bendover]

hmmmmm

[bendover]

POT

KETTLE

BLACK

[PeterG]

I thought this forum was limited to over 13's and yet it seems not

Actually, this is due to an American law that prohibits websites from collection information on under 13's without their parent's written permission. Google for COPPA. Seeing as a lot of forum software is written in the States, most of it hardcodes some sort of compliance method to stop sites getting caught out through ignorance.

[FatBoy]

Any information that can be used to identify an individual is covered by the DPA so if someone has a fixed IP address and you have information as to who uses it (as in this case) then holding that information and publishing it is covered by the DPA, even if it is as trivial as knowing that the same computer was used to log in under two different log in names, provided you know who one of those logins belonged to.

I don't remember ever giving my real name when I signed up to Nopesport - hence the mystery of Numbskull. Therefore the information we have is fixed IP vs made up username vs EMail address (the only compulsory contact detail on sign up I seem to remember) - and your email address can be a made up name too. Hence this is outside of the DPA as you cannot with THIS information alone work out who it is. If somebody then wants to put their real name on their login, or as I've done in several posts put my real name as someone's asked then that's maybe a grey area.

Where the fixed IP is subject to DPA is with your ISP whose system no doubt is registed with the data comission, and as I said before this'll be in the smallprint somewhere on sign up to an ISP.

[Simon]

Where the fixed IP is subject to DPA is with your ISP whose system no doubt is registed with the data comission, and as I said before this'll be in the smallprint somewhere on sign up to an ISP.

The key question is does the information reveal an individual? In the case of a fixed IP it does not even guarantee to reveal a single computer. So that does not reveal an individual.

Even if an individual computer is revealed then more information is needed to be able to confirm that only one person could possibly have ever used that computer. At no stage will a sign up to a forum such as this confirm this.

[FatBoy]

Absolutely. My usual IP and indeed this one which is different for those who are looking are both firewall/gateways and between the two could be anyone of about 40 computers. This current IP is one of my customers' and in no way related to me.

Here's an example I've used before. You go park in a motorway services car park and chances are some bod will go round and type your registration number into a palm top computer - so they can tell if you're over the two free hours. Is this personal information? No it isn't. Only with access to the DVLA info can you even work out the owner of the car, and that doesn't tell you who was driving it.