Can you believe it that in 2008 Father Christmas was arrested and arraigned on a contravention of the UK Data Protection Act, reports The Spoof. Investigators discovered a list of the world’s children categorised by who is “naughty” and who is “nice.” It appears the list was compiled without the consent of the children. “This is a clear breach of the 1988 Data Protection Act,” said Detective Inspector Phil Inne. The list is described as a “gold mine” of consumer information, including the addresses and wishes of children worldwide. Computerised records are new for Santa, who used to hold his records of naughty and nice children on reindeer hide written in elf blood. However, with the burgeoning of the world’s population of under tens, coupled with the decline in childhood mortality rates, this had become impracticable, forcing Santa into computerising his records 😉
Day: 4 January 2009
Ireland gets tough with spammers
Tough new Irish laws will see businesses face fines of up to €250,000 if they are found guilty of sending unsolicited email. Under the new regulations, unsolicited mail for direct marketing purposes will be an indictable offence. The new regulations are known as ‘European Communities (Electronic Communications Networks and Services) (Data Protection and Privacy)(Amendment) Regulations’. Read more…