RTE News displays tax payers names and addresses

JDxtra

Did anybody else catch the 9pm bulletin last night (29/4)? During a report they had a shot of Revenue letters being printed, but you could clearly see names and addresses on them! A quick rewind with Sky+ revealed two names and home addresses of what I assume were PAYE workers.

Sleipnir

You think that's bad, Eircom publish a whole book of them! It's huge!

JDxtra

Sleipnir wrote: »

You think that's bad, Eircom publish a whole book of them! It's huge!

Good point - but I guess those in the phone book opted to have their name/number/address published.

Attached is a screen grab from the news report on RTE Player. You can see one of the names / addresses - but it was much clearer on the TV.

afatbollix

sure last year after a news report they had to change all the locks in a prison... because they showed a bunch of keys or the locks i cant remember.. tools..

MarkK

JDxtra wrote: »

Attached is a screen grab from the news report on RTE Player. You can see one of the names / addresses - but it was much clearer on the TV.

Er, have you not just made it worse by putting this pic on the internet?

Hogzy

MarkK wrote: »

Er, have you not just made it worse by putting this pic on the internet?

Eh isnt it free for everone else to go and see them anyways on rte player?:rolleyes:

MarkK

Hogzy wrote: »

Eh isnt it free for everone else to go and see them anyways on rte player?:rolleyes:

It's a bit more complicated to do that than just click a link.:rolleyes:

Hogzy

MarkK wrote: »

It's a bit more complicated to do that than just click a link.:rolleyes:

Info is still out there tho! Hes just illustrating how easy it is to get it!!!!

MarkK

Hogzy wrote: »

Info is still out there tho! Hes just illustrating how easy it is to get it!!!!

It could be illustrated without reproducing the full name and address.

Hogzy

MarkK wrote: »

It could be illustrated without reproducing the full name and address.

That would probably require alot more effort tho :P

BrianD

It was certainly very careless of the broadcaster involved but even more so by the Revenue Commissioners. The head of the Met Police showed how easy it is for documents that might of got only a fleeting glimpse on TV to be interpreted and reproduced.

The Data Commissioner give an example of where if an account query on a screen in a public store is viewable by others than it is breach of privacy. See this link: http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?Docid=172&Catid=45&StartDate=1+January+2009&m=c
It's kind of similar to the broadcast situation - except the eyes of the nation can potentially see the private data.

The issue is security, The Revenue Commissoners did not secure the personal data of citizens and allowed it to be disclosed by the mass media. There could have easily been more data visible or in theory there is a possibility that the broadcaster has more data stored on a tape somewhere. The owner of the tape has no duty of care with this data.

icdg

Picture removed, out of fairness to the individual named in it.