I think the fact that any old arsehole can purchase the details of someone's car, and the only verification is the colour of their money and whether they're on companies house is more shocking than the spreadsheet faux pas.
Oops, says Manchester City Council after thousands of number plates exposed in parking ticket spreadsheet
Manchester City Council exposed online the number plates of more than 60,000 cars slapped with parking tickets, breaking data protection laws as it did so. In what appears to be a sincere if misguided attempt to provide public accountability over parking wardens, the council publishes income from parking tickets online in the …
COMMENTS
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Thursday 13th May 2021 16:43 GMT iron
The same is true in the UK. I attended a GIS conference about 6 - 10 years ago where during the keynote Vodafone showed us all arriving at the conference centre courtesy of mobile phone tracking and then showed us how TFL use that data to track everyone in London daily.
TFL is a government body but surely you don't believe the mobile companies wouldn't sell this data to say Peter Thiel and Palantir if shown enough cash. 5G licences and replacement masts are very expensive.
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Friday 14th May 2021 19:42 GMT martinusher
Some data use is benign
Mobile phone tracking is used to monitor congestion streets in Los Angeles. TFL might be using the same technique to monitor congestion in London. The key difference is whether the information is tracked as individuals or just moving data points.
It is, however, very naive to think that law enforcement wouldn't use this data if they could get their hands on it. People arrested in connection with the January 6th assault on the Capitol in the US are often nailed by their mobile phone location showing them in the building at the relevant times.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 16:30 GMT Barrie Shepherd
What is so wrong with being able to identify the owner of an aircraft? - or for that matter a car. In fact I'd go as far as to say it would be even better if the owners of buildings could be easily identified.
If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear...........! /s
What is obscene is that the data for car registrations is being charged for.
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Friday 14th May 2021 07:55 GMT theloon
Do you work for Manchester council Barrie? PCaaS anyone?
yes that's a brilliant idea, def one for the parking department weekly meeting !??
Let's identify cars and their owners and simply publish a register of where to find high value motors for steal-to-order crims to work down the list.
Let's call it PCaaS ! Pinch car as a Service
Idiot !
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Friday 14th May 2021 08:18 GMT Anonymous Coward
The big oops here isn't the data itself, you can read a reg plate and do a lookup online and get details.
The oops here is that the details are now permanently linked to parking tickets and fines.
That opens the doors for ambulance chasing lawyers, businesses refusing to offer jobs on the basis of outstanding fines, malicious hackers sending blackmail based phishing emails etc etc.
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Friday 14th May 2021 10:36 GMT Already?
You're in town, you misjudge a junction or a roundabout and some oik gives you the V's so you respond in kind and drive off. 100 yards later you've forgotten it ever happened. Later that evening you find your car has been keyed outside your house and the windows stoved in.
Or..
You've escaped your abusive ex's clutches and moved somewhere else and not told him where. He gets on to DVLA and finds where the car is now registered...
I'm sure there are other just as obvious reasons, if I could be bothered to spend any more time to think of them.
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Friday 14th May 2021 12:55 GMT Cynic_999
Good idea! Then if you annoy me by driving too slow for my liking, I can trivially find where you live and chuck a brick through your window. I will also be able to follow a pretty girl to her car and find out where she lives. Same for finding out where a celebrity or ex lives by looking at their car reg on a social media photo ...
Yes, it will enable all sorts of useful things to be done a lot more easily ...
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
I think buildings are easy ish in the UK (although I have not looked for a while so perhaps it has changed, handy for a game of 'who owns that fence'). The land registry will sell you a copy of the title for £3 if you have just the address, which is full of a wealth of exciting information. As well as name and address of the landlord a title includes indications financial status by way of the charges section (and Zoopla/Rightmove) and possibly age if it its been continuously owned which all seems much more fun than you could get out of the DVLA. So I guess most sat nav systems are fundamentally evil.
Luckily its really difficult to find the addresses of buildings or work out if they are high value - it nearly ended the world when you could find the owner of a domain name by its address.
Some identifiers were created entirely to be public in order that an individual could be identified so I agree its a bit odd taking issue that they do what they were meant for. I do think the way the ICO applies the DPA is geared more towards how revenue and profile can be gained than common sense. Number plates and addresses are sitting out in the open all over the place if anyone wants to do wrong with them. I could more understand if it was the connecting the number plate with wrong doing that made it an issue (although court records are public anyway so doing wrong within society is not something we expect to be a private matter) rather than just that there is a listing of number plates.
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Sunday 16th May 2021 22:11 GMT Anonymous Coward
When the British Gliding Association (a body of staggering incompetence) ran UK glider registrations, they decided with no consultation or prior warning to publish online the owners' names and addresses. I threatened them with legal action and they relented - my point was that is would have been extremely simple to visit a club, find out the address of a visiting pilot and then do it over in his/her absence.
Later on all gliders had to be properly registered with details on G-INFO but that move came with notice and most sensible owners simple used their club address as the registration one.
I just looked up my old glider to find out who had it now and found that it was destroyed last August. Sniff.
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Friday 14th May 2021 19:48 GMT martinusher
Its not just details of the owner. In the US -- and so I'd guess in the UK as well -- you can not only get registration records for a particular plane but also track where it is in real time. So you can literally look out the window, see an aircraft and from your phone find out what it is, who owns it, where its coming from and going to and high and how fast it is flying. You can get this information directly from the aircraft but there are websites that correlate this with flight plans.
(Its also the same for boats, just about anything larger than a simple dinghy carries a transponder.)
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Monday 17th May 2021 12:21 GMT Cynic_999
As small GA aircraft do not have to file a flightplan or give any notice whatsoever as to their whereabouts, what you say cannot be true. While most light aircaft these days do carry a transponder, it is not mandatory to either fit or use a transponder unless the aircraft is flying IFR (instrument flight rules), and transponder codes are not unique to any aircraft anyway.
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Friday 14th May 2021 09:26 GMT Solviva
In Sweden you send an (not-so-premiun 30p + operators fee) sms to the DVLA equivalent and get the details back. Well as much as name and city. Sven Svensson in Stockholm might not be so identifiable.
For slightly more unique individuals you can look them up in one of the several online databases for full address, birthday, married or single and to who, owner of a business(es), cars owned, pets owned (dogs & cats anyway)... Then either pay a small fee for their previous years tax declaration or visit in person a tax office and ask for it. I think in the tax office, the person being inquired of gets a letter saying Anders Andersson just got a copy of your tax record.
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Saturday 15th May 2021 22:11 GMT Yes Me
Information wants to be free
Rubbish. The Information Commissioner's Office has its head up its bum IMNSHO. The reason we have number plates on cars is precisely so that misbehaving drivers can be identified. That's been the case since 1904, for good reason, and only the reigning monarch on official business is exempt. (So if you see a car with no plates, it must be Liz.)
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Thursday 13th May 2021 11:05 GMT Mr Humbug
Re: MC1192
Manchester has a lot of fixed bus lane cameras (Mrs Humbug was caught by one when she moved over about ten yards too early in order to turn left at a junction). My guess would be that they are all recorded as MC1192.
I would also guess that some parking areas have automated camera enforcement and 'no ticket displayed' really means 'didn't pay by phone app'.
But this is all just a guess
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Friday 14th May 2021 09:49 GMT Sgt_Oddball
Re: MC1192
I would agree. I've also been caught out by their bus lanes (lefthand turn with the bus lane warning on a direction sign about 20 yards before the turn and the signs at the junction were facing traffic coming from the right. So I missed it. Also no change of paint unlike Leeds bus lanes).
So in all likelihood I've probably been caught in this. Is there somewhere we can check if they leaked our number plate or not?
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Thursday 13th May 2021 15:00 GMT logicalextreme
I've just looked at some old PCNs I got slapped on my motorbike (while it was parked in the place that an MCC-contracted parking warden told me to park it) and they follow this format, so it's definitely a staff number (though they're not actually employed by the council which obviously means the wardens are on commission = more tickets and the council have a bit of plausible deniability when I take them to court).
Likely 1192 does foot patrols occasionally but is usually reviewing and verifying the CCTV footage prior to issuing PCNs.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 11:14 GMT andy gibson
Swiss number plates
Many years ago I remember watching a Jeremy Clarkson TV show about driving around the world. He said that in Switzerland the number plate stayed with the owner for life and that you could look up their address in a public database.
And as a result meant there was little road rage or motoring trouble because you could easily go round to the car owner's house to deal with it later.
Not sure if its true or just Clarkson talking out of his arse as usual.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 16:00 GMT jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid
Re: Swiss number plates
Many years ago, I had a car insurance policy that covered me for any vehicle I owned. Not really sure why because I never asked for that type of cover. It became a problem when I tried to tax my car at the post office (it was that long ago). You had to prove the vehicle was insured to get the tax disc, but because my certificate didn't have a vehicle registration number on it, the clerk refused to accept it as proof of insurance. Having the V5 document didn't help either as register keeper and owner were not the same thing.
I came back the next day with my old insurance certificate for a policy I had cancelled early. The expiry date on it was still in the future but the policy didn't exist any more. The clerk didn't know this and accepted it as proof of insurance. So I couldn't do the honest thing with valid documents, but could with invalid ones.
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:32 GMT Prst. V.Jeltz
Re: Swiss number plates
I had a car insurance policy that covered me for any vehicle I owned
ah the good old days.
It wasnt really "Any vehicle you owned" - you were meant to keep them informed of any changes and theyd charge appropriately , or cancel
They just didnt want to be bothered issuing new certs when people change car
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Friday 14th May 2021 06:25 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Swiss number plates
If you are in the UK, check with your insurance company, especially if any of those cars are classics - it may be possible to put them on a multiple vehicle policy - just look into the small print - there are restrictions. Certainly the insurance companies that deal with classic vehicles offer multiple vehicle policies. You still get insured for each and every one of those vehicles, but it can reduce the overall amount you pay. Pay particular attention to your main vehicle/used for commuting to ensure coverage.
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:30 GMT Prst. V.Jeltz
Re: Swiss number plates
if any of those cars are classics - it may be possible to put them on a multiple vehicle policy
tried that: regular multi policy wont accept anything slightly unusal
So imagine my excitement when my "classic" insurer announced multi car and priomised they could insure the whole fleeet however weird and wonderful it is...
They found an excuse to exclude BOTH my classics somehow
one was not old enough and one was TOO old somehow ...
different rules for ladder chassied pickup , and moncoque sports car
I cant remeber the details appart from being absolutlely flabbergasted and losing the will to live
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:24 GMT Prst. V.Jeltz
the person who should be insured, not the vehicle!
and I have to pay insurance for each and every one.
and road tax! i'm only driving one at once!
...dont get me started !
The robbing cunts refuse to acknowledge that a NCB is proof of a good driving record by only letting you use it on one vehicle!
(excuse my language, thats one of a handful of times ive used that word in my entire life)
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Friday 14th May 2021 15:28 GMT Ochib
Re: Swiss number plates
It is also possible to own two (or more) vehicles that share the vehicle license number plates: the plates are physically unmounted from one vehicle and mounted on another, provided the vehicles in question are owned by the same owner of the vehicle license number plate. These plates are known locally as "Wechselschilder".
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Thursday 13th May 2021 15:52 GMT jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid
Re: Swiss number plates
"Also, it is the person who should be insured, not the vehicle!"
Until the person parks the car on a public road and gets out. Later the handbrake slips and the car rolls down the hill and causes an accident. That's the reasoning a lawyer once used to explain to me why in the UK, the vehicle must be insured when in a public place, not the person.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 16:14 GMT TRT
Re: Swiss number plates
Not sure it works that way. If the handbrake slipped then the owner of the vehicle is still going to be responsible, as is arguably the driver of the vehicle, should it be shown that, in fact, their actions caused the handbrake to fail. If the owner is responsible for maintenance and that was the cause, then they are liable. If the owner is made liable in all events anyway, then if THEY suffer a loss as a result of a different DRIVER'S actions, then they have a route to remedy through the courts under vicarious liability law.
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Saturday 15th May 2021 11:26 GMT Falmari
Re: Swiss number plates
@jdiebdhidbsusbvwbsidnsoskebid "why in the UK, the vehicle must be insured when in a public place, not the person." Not sure that is correct and certainly was not the case when I was younger.
In my youth I had a Norwich Union Rider (motorcycles) policy. I was insured for any motorcycle I owned and also covered 3rd party fire and theft for any motorcycle that I was using with the owners consent. I had that policy for 12 years. Before they stopped offering the policy due to it not being profitable enough for them.
Also they did not know what motorcycles I owned, you did not have to register the motorcycles with them. I could just buy a motorcycle and I was insured for it.
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:33 GMT sebacoustic
Re: Swiss number plates
Yes at least this was true at least when I lived in CH (20 years now...) people had just the one number and could bolt it to the motorbike in summer and the car in winter, insurance due for the most expensive of the set of vehicles. Makes some sense, as do a lot of things in CH.
In my native Germany you have the worst of both worlds.. get a new plate for every time a vehicle is registered with a new owner, adding cost/work to the process of buying a new a car.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 11:21 GMT macjules
Defaulting to penalty charges
I pay £119 for an annual resident's parking permit in London. If the car needs service or repairs I would normally expect to either have a courtesy car or be provided a rental however my local council refuses to permit me to temporarily transfer the parking permit to another vehicle. Instead they demand that I pay another £119 for a "temporary parking permit" valid for only 30 days. Unfortunately it can take at least 14 days for the temporary permit to be issued and you are not permitted to stick a piece of paper with the application number on your car - parking control officers are 'trained' to disregard any notes left on or in cars. So the way it has to work is like this:
Step 1: Apply for a temporary parking permit (TPP)
Step 2: Stick all the parking tickets you collect somewhere safe (this will be at least 2 per day)
Step 3: After 14 days you will receive an email notification that they have issued a TPP
Step 4: Use that email notification to appeal against all the tickets you have accrued.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 11:23 GMT Eclectic Man
Mark Steel's In Town - Lynton and Lynmouth
The BBC Radio comedy program 'Mark Steel's in Town' has comedian Mark Steel vest various towns throughout the British isles*. In the last one I heard he visits Lynton and Lynmouth on the north coast of Exmoor. The towns are so so small and close together that everyone knows each other, and they could not get any of the traffic warders to give their friends parking tickets, so have to import them from 20 miles away or no tickets would be issued.
*I use the term "British Isles" to mean the islands off the coast of Brittany, there is no intention on my part to get into the discussion regarding whether the island of Ireland is 'British' or 'Irish' or deal with the current issues of Brexit and goods traversing the Irish Sea, as Mr Steel did a very funny episode from Derry/Londonderry.
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Friday 14th May 2021 14:45 GMT Plest
Re: Mark Steel's In Town - Lynton and Lynmouth
Steel is a legend! His "In Town" stuff with his oppo Pete Sinclair are just hilarious and have got me to visit more places around the UK simply from hearing what he's found there.
His other shows about famous lives such as Billie Holiday and Charlie Chaplin were just stunning. Not bad for a bloke from Swanley who left school with no qualifications and who now works on the BBC and writes for the Guardian.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 12:19 GMT low_resolution_foxxes
Ohh deary me. I can foresee a legal claims lawyer taking this up and requesting the fines are refunded due to the sheer horror and embarrassment caused to these drivers by having their PII released to the public.
If nothing else, the council may drop your case as the costs of defending a data leak will outweigh the £100 fine revenue
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Thursday 13th May 2021 12:47 GMT disgruntled yank
Lookups
There has been an abandoned car parked on my street, no tags, no inspection stickers, nothing but a sticker from what I take to be a New York parking garage. I was interested to find that for $1 one can get the history of a car, given only its vehicle identification number (VIN). I didn't invest, but I did ascertain that the car was not stolen.
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Friday 14th May 2021 00:21 GMT JassMan
Re: Will Manchester United Council be doing the same?
You obviousky have insider information. As far as the rest of the world knows, the stadium is in the Borough of Trafford and its legal entity is based in the Cayman Islands.
From Wikipedia :
The metropolitan boroughs of the City of Salford and the City of Manchester border Trafford to the north and east respectively; the Cheshire East area of Cheshire lies to the south.
Trafford is not subsidiary to Salford. Not now, and not when I was born just down the road from Old Trafford.
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Thursday 13th May 2021 14:16 GMT Mike 137
"you can register yourself as a private parking company with the DVLA"
Data protection legislation emerged from the European Convention on Human Rights, which was envisaged primarily to protect individuals from governments in the aftermath of WW II. It's consequently both strange and disquieting that governments seem to be the least affected by the legislation in practice. Quite apart from individual abuses or failures, the legislation as enacted includes blanket exemptions for government activities
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Thursday 13th May 2021 18:31 GMT Andy Taylor
There's no need to set up as a private parking firm, you only need to do that, and sign up to a recognised trade body to be eligible for access to the electronic "Keeper On Date Of Event" (KADOE) system.
Unfortunately the current situation is that any company with the right membership of a trade body is trusted to always have a good reason or "reasonable cause" to get that data. Many of these companies have a poor reputation and are part of what was described as an "outrageous scam" by MPs. Thankfully there is upcoming statutory provision on the way to curb some of their bad behaviour.
Outside of the murky world of parking companies, anyone with "reasonable cause" can request keeper details from the DVLA via a form V888 and the payment of the requisite fee (currently £2.50 or £5 depending on the reason for the request).
I help people who have received unfair parking charge notices from unscrupulous parking companies and have had some success in making DPA breach claims against them when they have obtained and processed keeper details without "reasonable cause". £250 per breach is the going rate, more if the data is passed to a third party.
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Friday 14th May 2021 20:06 GMT Anonymous Coward
In Lloyd v Google LLC [2019] EWCA Civ 1599 the Court of Appeal seemed to approve of its previous decision in Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd (CCF) [2013] EWCA Civ 333, where it was decided that a relatively minor data breach could be remedied with nominal damages of £750.
As a lesser breach (the data in the breach isn't linked to the person directly), nor may the person served the NtK even be the driver (who would be the unknown person impacted by the breach), so while it is a breach it is clearly of lesser severity.
60,000 x £750 = £45M That will make a dent in their parking revenue for the year!
I believe their normal revenue is £17.2M p.a, with running costs of £7M, so it would take 5 years to cover.
I suppose it's just a matter of time before claims management companies leap onto the GDPR bandwagon.
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Saturday 15th May 2021 23:11 GMT Grease Monkey
"It is easy to identify the owner of a car. For a modest fee, you can register yourself as a private parking company with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and look up anyone's name and address off the DVLA register of vehicle keepers. "
I still maintain the DVLA are breaching GDPR by selling details like this, but gov.uk think they are above the law.
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Sunday 16th May 2021 02:39 GMT Justin Clements
Why is this a privacy issue?
I don't see why this is a privacy issue.
The vehicle got a ticket in a public location, this meant the ticket was visibly attached to the vehicle in a public area. So this information is already in the public arena.
So why does it suddenly become privacy matter, when it's clearly not?