Privacy laws - Protection safeguards badly needed

Privacy is very important to people, so it was disturbing that the gardaí were revealed to be checking private phone records unnecessarily on the grounds of investigating crime.

Because the current legislation does not specify what a serious crime is, the system is open to abuse and needs to be seriously amended, as pointed out by Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes in his annual report.

Safeguards are glaringly needed to protect privacy, and not just in relation to the gardaí. Only three complaints were made against newspapers because of stories, according to the report.

While it may not appear to be much, it obviously was important to those who felt aggrieved, and it points to an issue which is very relevant today.

Under the Data Protection Act, the commissioner is entitled to rule whether or not legislation has been breached, but he is powerless thereafter. Redress, if sought, has to be through the civil courts which is an exceptionally expensive option.

It should be interesting to see whether the privacy proposals which Justice Minister Michael McDowell is bringing to Cabinet today are fair to the individual - household name, or not - and to the press.