Data Protection Commissioner's report: The use of speed cameras to detect motor insurance and tax offences would require a change in legislation, the Data Protection Commissioner has said.
The commissioner, Joe Meade, said yesterday that the Department of Transport had sought advice from him on the issue.
He told a press briefing: "We have to be careful that this is not the start of a surveillance culture which could then be used for location purposes.
"Could there be a record kept of every car which passes by Portlaoise and kept on a central database, for instance?"
He said plans for the additional use of speed cameras would have to be publicly debated. "There have to be controls in place to ensure that it's limited as much as possible."
Mr Meade was speaking at the publication of the Data Protection Commissioner's 2004 annual report.
Public inquiries to the commissioner's office increased from 10,000 to 15,000 last year and formal complaints investigated by the office increased from 258 to 385. Just 11 per cent were not upheld.
Some 42 per cent of complaints concerned direct marketing. More than one third of these complaints were about "spam" - unsolicited marketing messages via mobile phone or e-mail.
Mr Meade said he was very disappointed that ComReg still had not introduced a national opt-out register for people who did not want to receive marketing calls on their landlines or mobile phones.
Last July it was agreed that people could have their names put on a register to ensure that they would not receive such calls.
When such a register was introduced in the US two years ago, some eight million people put their names on it on the first day of operation.
Yesterday a spokesman for ComReg said the register would be in place by June.
He said ComReg had put the framework for the register in place and it was Eircom's responsibility to enact it.
It also emerged yesterday that the Data Protection Commissioner has taken a case against a company for mobile text spamming.
The case will be heard in the Dublin District Court next month.
Meanwhile, Mr Meade said his office had concerns about the media publication of personal details. If personal privacy was being invaded, then it must be asked if publication was in the public interest, he said.
If proposals being prepared by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell did not fully address this issue, then the Data Protection Commissioner would introduce a legally binding code of practice, Mr Meade said.
Fines of up to €100,000 and a prohibition on publishing could be the ultimate sanction for breaching the code.
The Data Protection Commissioner expressed disappointment at the failure of State bodies to carry adequate privacy statements on their websites.
A privacy statement should set out what the website operator does with any personal details it receives from website visitors.
Mr Meade surveyed 242 websites of State or semi-State bodies last year and found that 75 per cent of them either had no privacy statement or an inadequate one.
On the introduction of legislation allowing for the retention of telephone and mobile phone records for three years, he said this period was excessive and 12 months was preferable.
"Of course the guards have to have access to as much information as possible but do you have to retain everybody's phone details for three years when 80 or 90 per cent of the population may never commit a crime?"
Mr Meade also launched a new CD-rom yesterday to help businesses comply with data protection legislation.
