Farming subsidy database 'breaches privacy rights'

European rules forcing the publication of details of the people who received farming subsidies and how much they received breached those people's rights to privacy, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled. The Court found that when it came to 'natural persons', meaning named individuals, the publication of all of those …

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm puzzled

There's something not quite right about a system which sees a subsidy as income and therefore private information. Subsidies are politocal/economic tools used by governements to achieve their objectives and they come out of the pockets of tax-payers. I damned-well do want to know who is getting what.

Granted, they may have revealed more than necessary about the individuals' private lives/circumstances, but that doesn't justify overall secrecy.

[BristolBachelor]

Condition of subsidy

So on the form it said that the information would be published? I would say that makes it a condition of the subsidy; make them repay the money.

It's the same way that if I submit one of my photos to a competition on the understanding that the competition organisers can use it royalty free, I cannot then sue them for damages for using it!

[Michael Hawkes]

change the conditions

One solution might be to stop giving subsidies to "natural" persons. If they want subsidies, they have to become "legal' persons, then the info can be published.