Xref: utzoo comp.org.eff.talk:909 misc.legal:23011 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!bigben!bigben!philip From: philip@beeblebrox.dle.dg.com (Philip Gladstone) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,misc.legal Subject: Re: National Lotus Database Message-ID: Date: 4 Dec 90 00:01:32 GMT References: <9011261357.AA28287@litchi.bbn.com> Sender: usenet@dle.dg.com (Net News) Followup-To: comp.org.eff.talk Organization: Data General, Development Lab Europe Lines: 38 In-Reply-To: rsalz@bbn.com's message of 26 Nov 90 13:57:58 GMT In article <9011261357.AA28287@litchi.bbn.com> rsalz@bbn.com (Rich Salz) writes: rsalz> The database does not contain any of the data covered by the Fair Credit rsalz> Practices Act so Lotus is under no legal obligation to let you see what rsalz> they are saying about you. In fact, during interviews they have said that rsalz> there is NO WAY for an individual to review their personal data, nor are rsalz> there any provisions to make corrections on what is recorded. This raises some *extremely* interesting legal issues. If Lotus bring one copy of this database into the UK, then every US citizen is entitled (under the terms of the [UK] Data Protection Act 1984) to a) be supplied by Lotus with a copy of the information constituting any personal data held by Lotus b) rectification of any data held by Lotus if found to be inaccurate c) compensation due to any inaccuracy d) compensation due to unauthorised disclosure etc etc. [My reading of the act] There is some doubt as to the last two categories as to *who* could be sued for compensation. There is a reading of the Act that says that Lotus would be liable for inaccuracy, but not for the disclosure. Note that most European countries have Data Protection Legislation of some sort (some rather stricter than that of the UK). There is one drawback to hoping that Lotus might take a disk into the UK -- the whole database might be illegal in the first place! -- Philip Gladstone Dev Lab Europe, Data General, Cambridge, UK Listen three eyes, don't you try and outweird me, I get stranger things that you free with my breakfast cereal.