ukoda wrote: » Let's play out your doomsday scenario of "I'm a merchant who bought a list of postcodes and I think this particular postcode is like the UK one and I know Mary at this postcode bought a laptop so I want to do a mail shot to all Mary's neighbours because I think they are laptop purchasing folk" Ok so Mary's postcode is ABC123, hmm now that means nothing to me, I better look it up....off I go to the Irish postcode website to have a look, oh no! This is a unique identifier to one house! But WAIT! I can just get the list of all neighbouring postcodes, on no! They aren't sequential so I in fact can't just fire out letters to her neighbours, damn it, BUT WAIT I can licence this ECAD thing and then get all the addresses in a certain radius of Mary's house, look at me go, oh dear, has Mary given consent for me to have her address now that I know the postcode = one address. I'm a reputable marketeer so I will check with the merchant before I do anything. Or if I'm a bit dodgy: screw it I'm going to send my laptop brochure to all her neighbours. End result: Best case scenario, nothing happens at all Worst case scenario, someone gets a laptop brochure Oh the humanity! I've been violated That's the problem with these fear inducing statements of "SOMETHING COULD HAPPEN" people get caught up in it and need to take moment to get back to the reality of not everyone is out to violate your privacy. Some are, and they will do it with or without eircode. Such is life.
What is junk mail? Junk mail is unwanted postal marketing such as flyers, competition entries and postal campaigns. How can I reduce the amount of junk mail I receive? If you are having a problem with the overall amount of junk mail that is addressed to you, it could help to register your name and address with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS). The MPS is a free service set up by the direct marketing industry to help people who don't want to receive junk mail. It is good practice for organisations to check the MPS list before sending marketing but it is not a legal requirement that they do so. To register, contact the MPS www.mpsonline.org.uk You can reduce the amount of 'unaddressed’ mail you receive by registering with the Royal Mail's door to door opt-out service. However, this will not stop mail addressed to 'the occupier'. Write to: Freepost RRBT-2BXB-TTTS, Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX Or email at optout@royalmail.com How can I stop an organisation from sending me junk mail? If you receive marketing that is addressed to you, the Data Protection Act gives you the right to tell an organisation to stop sending it to you. You should write to them by letter or email to tell them to stop using your personal information to send you marketing. When they receive your request they must stop marketing you as soon as they can. Suggested letter: [Date] Dear Sir or Madam Notice under the Data Protection Act 1998 not to use my personal information for direct marketing. I [your full name] of [your full address] require you to stop / not to begin processing personal information relating to me for direct marketing as soon as possible and in any event within 28 days of the date of this letter / email. If you do not normally handle these requests for your organisation, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer or the person who does. Please note that if you do not comply with this notice, I can apply to the court for an order against you under the Data Protection Act. Yours faithfully [Signature] If you have written to the organisation to ask them to stop sending you marketing material, but they have continued to send it, then you may wish to report your concerns.
POSTAL MARKETING The rules governing postal marketing are mainly contained in Section 2 of the Data Protection Acts. Marketing through the post is the traditional and oldest form of direct marketing. For mail to be considered to be direct marketing it must, generally speaking, be addressed to a named person and must be promoting a product or service. Unaddressed mail or mail addressed to "the occupant", "the resident" or "the householder" does not normally involve the use of personal data and consequently data protection legislation would not apply. However, where a data controller can identify "the occupant", "the resident" or "the householder" from the address in conjunction with other data in or likely to come into his possession, this may involve the processing of personal data and data protection requirements would apply. Also, the rules do not normally apply to postal marketing of corporate entities (companies, agencies etc) - including marketing of office-holders within such an entity (provided that the marketing is related to the organisation's business needs and that the details of the named person in receipt were obtained fairly). Before you can use personal data for postal marketing, you must tell customers (or potential customers) that you intend to use their data for this purpose and give them an opportunity to refuse such use. Where you yourself have collected the personal data, this should be done at the time of collection (for example, by providing a "tick-box" on a form). Where you have obtained the personal data from a third party - including a source of information that is publicly available by law - the opportunity to refuse direct marketing material must be provided before any such material is sent. If any customer objects, you may not use their personal data to directly market them. The individual may withdraw their consent to direct marketing at any time. If your only reason for holding an individual's personal data is direct marketing, then you must erase the personal data from any lists or databases that you hold once the individual has objected. You may use names and addresses drawn from the Edited Electoral Register for postal marketing. The "Edited Register" contains a sub-set of the names and addresses on the "Full Register" of voters. Individuals on the Edited Register are those who, when registering to vote, did not object to their personal data being used for marketing or other non-statutory purposes. It is an offence under electoral law to use information drawn from the "Full Register" of electors for direct marketing (or for any other purpose not provided for in legislation). It is also your duty to make sure that you are using the most up-to-date version of the Edited Register (see separate guidance-note).
ukoda wrote: » But weren't they paid €9 million already for use of their geodirectory by eircode?
GJG wrote: A unique postcode was the only viable way to solve Ireland's non-unique address problem. The problems of people misusing Eircode you claim exist would be equally of any unique postcode, whatever the design.
marmurr1916 wrote: » Yes, I made that same point. That's not proof. You've asserted that Eircodes will be handled with less care than they require - the onus is on you to prove this assertion.
Postcodes are normally assumed to be anonymous and might not be handled with the same level of care as addresses, which can be assumed to be unique and personal.
plodder wrote: » Correct, but at least you are starting to see there is a trade-off.
plodder wrote: » It doesn't matter how many times posters come back and say. "But, but, but ... a UK postcode plus a house number is equivalent". It doesn't matter because postcodes can be automatically extracted from sales information and shipped off to third parties regardless of the privacy guarantees provided by the vendor, and the question is will every website in China or Hong Kong, know that Eircodes should be treated differently and removed from such lists. It's really not complicated a point, but it is amusing to observe the twisting and turning around it.
GJG wrote: » Of course there is a trade-off, there are many of them. That is why the anti-Eircode obsessive(s) can easily find a single point where their pet system is 'superior', but only as long as you ignore all the other requirements. Plodder, I recognise that you are trying to be constructive, and I don't want to be negative towards you personally, but I think that this demonstrates that you might not have much practical experience on this topic.
Firstly, if you think that people who are willing to ignore DP best-practice, let alone the law, then the idea that they will carefully extract postcodes only from a customer file to make it, they think, anonymous, then that is a bit naive.
But moreover, you say that all other postcodes are anonymous. They are not. UK postcodes cover a maximum of 26 dwellings, but often far fewer. Typically, they each cover one side of a street. A highly DP-sensitive use of postcodes is for health statistics. The public good in having very accurate locality information when investigating environmental causes or targeting treatment services is obvious. But what about releasing to researchers 'anonymised' location data of HIV infections by type? How would you feel about releasing the male-to-male sexual transmission data, if you were the only gay couple living on the street? Equally German postcodes, with up to 100k residents, might hamper looking for clusters of childhood illness, to get early warning of an epidemic. Obviously, there are different levels of anonymisation that are suitable for different uses. There is a job to be done in establishing what is suitable for what, and making, communicating and enforcing sensible rules. The DPA should have been all over this with, but there is nothing on their website about this other than vague blathering. Fortunately, Eircode can do this better than almost any other system, because it is easy to build a system that converts Eircode into any other location division, be it Dáil constituency or Small Area. The fact that this hasn't been done yet, or that people may use Eircode wrongly, is hardly the fault of Eircode
Nekarsulm wrote: » Have any of you folks got your Census forms yet? First use of Eircode in my experience.
clewbays wrote: » Did the Census enumerator give you any instructions about Eircodes - it looks a bit vague on the form as to where they should be inserted?
ukoda wrote: » Mine arrived with eircode pre populated, wasn't mentioned in conversation with enumerator
clewbays wrote: » I wonder whether non-unique addresses are pre-populated with an Eircode which would put CSO ahead of the game. They probably are if CSO are using geodirectory. Was any mention made in relation to the Eircode of where you work?
Nekarsulm wrote: » Well I live in the countryside, with typical townland address. Our census form was not pre-populated with the eircode, he copied it from his own master list into our census form.
plodder wrote: » the question is will every website in China or Hong Kong, know that Eircodes should be treated differently and removed from such lists. It's really not complicated a point, but it is amusing to observe the twisting and turning around it.
marmurr1916 wrote: » What would a Chinese business do if they had your Eircode?
clewbays wrote: » Did he ask you to verify it or was he using a map to be sure of the exact location?
marmurr1916 wrote: » ... What's amusing is that now you're resorting to the 'Chinese won't understand it' gambit... What would a Chinese business do if they had your Eircode?
plodder wrote: » Originally Posted by marmurr1916 ... What's amusing is that now you're resorting to the 'Chinese won't understand it' gambit... What would a Chinese business do if they had your Eircode? They might inadvertently end up releasing personal information contrary to their privacy policy. Keep asking the same question and you're going to keep getting the same answer.
Originally Posted by marmurr1916 ... What's amusing is that now you're resorting to the 'Chinese won't understand it' gambit... What would a Chinese business do if they had your Eircode?
ukoda wrote: » Mentioned before, SUSI Grants system using eircode, estimate they'll save 250,000 staff hours a year now that the staff won't have to look up Google maps.http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/education/student-grants-could-be-slashed-by-half-in-postcode-overhaul-34557703.html
plodder wrote: » They might inadvertently end up releasing personal information contrary to their privacy policy. Keep asking the same question and you're going to keep getting the same answer.
BoatMad wrote: » They might inadvertently end up releasing personal information contrary to their privacy policy. which any company can do today with or without eircode , so what , it that regards compliance with data protection is essentially voluntary
They might inadvertently end up releasing personal information contrary to their privacy policy.
BailMeOut wrote: » 250,000 hours a year? So SUSI savings over 10 years will pay for entire eircode system!
plodder wrote: » SUSI receives around 100,000 applications per year. So, does this mean they were spending two hours per application looking up google maps? Must have shockin' slow broadband or something.... :eek:
