Dear LPG,

None of this is news really but when the news dies down how quickly we forget…

I recently found myself on Lewisham council’s website because I wanted to see if there were any clues as to how much council tax would go up by this year, and while I was there I came across their privacy policy. 

Those privacy policies have a habit of popping up when we least need to be bothered by them because we are usually on the way to finding something else that we really want to know about which is much more pressing.  So we tend to just click on the accept button and move on with our search, but have you ever really wondered just how much information about you is available on the internet? Or if indeed the facts that an organisation has gathered about you are accurate.

Please don’t think that I am targeting them or that I think they have some harmful information about me, I have just taken Lewisham council’s website as an example because I was there when this became an issue for me, and by pressing the button and reading just a little of their privacy policy small print, I found out about how you can find out what data is being kept about you.  And don’t be fooled, there is data there about everyone, even those who have never ever pressed a lap top keyboard button or a smart phones screen keypad.

Some of the information held is obvious I suppose, as I have often read that every time that we access anywhere online these days what we do online and which websites we visit when searching the internet can be tracked.  If you, like me, have a google email account and you access it on a computer device (phone, tablet laptop or desk top) that you have never used before, there will soon be an email in your inbox telling you when that happened and asking if it was really you. But I learned that anyone can apply to find out from the council about many other aspects of personal data they may hold.  For instance, did you know that you can even find out about where you have been seen on one of their infamous CCTV cameras.

In the case of Lewisham and most other Borough councils, there is a procedure which starts with a form and that can be found on their websites.

When I asked, Lewisham council told me that different departments within the council could well hold personal details including CCTV information, financial information, criminal record details, health records, basic name and contact details which you often give when you find yourself needing to register with any website before being able to use the most basic of services.

They mentioned the ICO (the Information Commissioner's Office), who said that if you want to check what has been written about you or challenge anything that is incorrect you need to remember, no matter how small the website is, if they have a record which includes anything about you they have an obligation to tell you, if you ask, and also to change any data if the change you inform them of can be supported.  The ICO is there to deal with any discrepancies that grow out of disagreements that might happen as a result.   Their telephone helpline is 0303 123 1113.

All these data protection and freedom of information legalities were big news about two years ago but i think that, since then, the focus has left this issue somewhat and I hope that my message will just remind readers of their rights. 

Now that I have stopped to think about all this, I plan to check out if what some of the online agencies have on me is accurate and just in case any LPG reader wants to do the same I have asked LPG to leave a link to the application form that will be the start of this journey.

CP, Bromley

As promised, CP left the link to Lewisham borough’s privacy statement and data retrieval application form…

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… and LPG found some related information…

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