Number Of Data Protection Complaints Up 48%

The Data Protection Comissioner’s office received a record number of complaints from members of the public in 2011.

Commissioner Billy Hawkes’s annual report for 2011 reveals the 1,161 complaints related to issues such as unsolicited marketing by text message and email, and unlawful use of CCTV to monitor employees.

Prosecutions were taken by the commissioner last year against telecommunications companies Vodafone, UPC, Eircom and 02 for marketing offences.

In the case of UPC, the company entered guilty pleas to 18 charges relating to unsolicited marketing phonecalls made to four individuals who had previously told the company they did not want to receive such calls.

In one case, the company faced 12 charges for persistently calling an individual over a two-week period in 2009.

Other cases highlighted by the commissioner include excessive data collection by the Swan Leisure Centre in Rathmines, Dublin. An individual had complained that the centre had refused to allow him and his child use the swimming pool when he declined to complete its "guest registration form", which asked for personal details such as name, address, date of birth, email and mobile phone number, and medical details.

Following intervention by the commissioner’s office, the centre changed its policy, and members of the public may now use the swimming pool without filling in the form.

The 1,161 complaints last year was a 48 per cent increase on the 783 received in 2010. Complaints concerning access rights to personal data, at 562, accounted for nearly half of the overall total.

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