Posts by Doctor Syntax 40471 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
"I find the worst part of motorway driving - and the most potentially lethal - is getting bored driving long straight roads with little or no interest to stop you from nodding off"
This is a solved problem. All those "smart" motorways with their close spaced speed cameras and changeable, arbitrary speed limits are guaranteed to impose sufficient stress to keep you awake.
"Surely that's called a taxi (black, mini or uber flavoured) or one of the gang doesn't drink."
The one time we resorted to booking a cab for that purpose after a company do I had the experience of being fully alert and watching our driver T-bone a car that had slowly pulled out of a side road, initially some hundreds ahead, most of which we travelled before said driver though it might be an idea to brake.
To give the driver his due he was very efficient after the crash. He got on the blower and got a colleague to come and remove all witnesses his passengers from the scene of the accident PDQ.
So they've finally begin to notice.
I wonder how long it will take before they start to think in wider terms than credit reference agencies. I suppose there's a factor limiting that. Given the number of breaches with US Gov't agencies if they made it a blanket law they might have to build in exemptions for gov't and that mightn't look too good. It might even start the plebs thinking about all the data gov't collects and that could be a really scary outcome for them.
"give the C-suiters a personal multiyear, all-expense paid, vacation courtesy of Club Fed with a personal massive 'donation' to the feral treasury."
You're talking about job titles. Job titles are what the company chooses to make them. They're just strings of letters. Unless you actually define the roles in your legislation then you have a massive loophole in it. Much easier to go for the directors. Those are already defined in company legislation.
"1) Real success is about fashion sense (for their target market), quality, value and store service.
2) IT is an evil necessity, and a cost. Being mediocre or worse is not going to harm them, whereas failing to manage purchasing, style, logistics, supply chains, and store stock levels will."
To the extent that IT supports store service, logistics, supply chains and store level it would be best just to regard it as a necessity rather than an evil one. Let it drift and all the things it supports also drift a bit.
Being of such low intelligence, he fails to realise that that episode is actually a hilarious demolition job from start to finish of just the sort of Fawltyish ignorance he himself is displaying. But no, all he remembers is the "silly walk" bit.
Have you dismissed out of hand the possibility that you're not the only one who realises that, that the landlord himself realises it, that his customers also realise it and that something hilarious is a good way to promote a pub event?
his first task was "solving" the Y2K bug using "Cobalt".
It's a pity he didn't extend this into a learning about character sets.
In the meantime, let's consider the new Minister for Universities and Science. Sam Gyimah who, according to the Beeb, is ex Goldman Sachs and read - you've guessed it - PPE. So really well qualified for the job.
"By defining rigid data retention policies and destroying data when the policy says you should."
Even before you get to data retention you should only collect the data you actually require. This may be rather less than manglement, particularly marketing, insist they want.
In fact, a good place to start would be by taking away all marketing's toys: their PCs, mobiles, network shares or whatever and only give them back after auditing for PII that shouldn't be there. Also, take away their budget and only give it back to them as required for projects signed off by your data protection compliance officer. Because marketing's culture is almost certainly antithetical to that you're trying to build.
"Does the ICO react to anything in 3 days?" It's up to you to inform within 3 days. After that it's up to them and nothing to do with you.
"Or ever?" Shall we have a check to find out? Oh, look https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/10/carphone_warehouse_slapped_with_400k_fine_after_hack_exposed_3_meeellion_customers_data/
"Best not do any of that sort of research just before a bank holiday weekend then!"
Write yourself a memo coming to the conclusion that re-identification is possible and date it. Include your suspicions that it might be possible plus your explanation of why you've just come to that finalconclusion. Send the ICO a message - email or letter, of the same date. If you're worried about the effects of non-working days do it on a date that gives the message sufficient time to be delivered. With documentation it becomes difficult to claim you were definitely aware earlier.
“very sorry for any distress or inconvenience”
Clear they can't get away with the ritual "only a few" so we get the second line of defence in weasel words: "any"(implying there may be none) and avoidance of the word "damage".
Will journalists please learn to follow up this crap with searching questions?
"The lady behind the counter asked me for a postcode, I gave her the first 3 letters of it!
Why give that much? It wasn't needed information.
When GDPR comes into operation I wonder how long it will take for businesses to discover that their marketing departments are their biggest risk.
Example: a few days ago I received a letter addressed:
$ME
Address removed
at customers request
MARKETED AT
$POSTCODE
Marketing just behave like four year-olds who won't be told 'no'.
"SAP has revealed it is working on a new on-premises human capital management system, admitting that many of its customers are still not ready for the cloud."
A more likely explanation is that the cloud isn't ready for GDPR, nor will it be. In the meantime, can whoever coined the phrase "human capital" be taken outside and quietly chloroformed?
The 38-page report [PDF] titled "Enhancing the Resilience of the Internet and Communications Ecosystem Against Botnets and Other Automated, Distributed Threats" is the first of many that are heading to the president's desk following an executive order signed in May, following a number of abortive attempts.
Do they really expect him to read 38 pages?
A nice outcome from the supremes would be a retrospective judgement that the class member should also get a payout - hands back in the pocket to find a bit more change.
If the prospect of a reasonable payout isn't that good why join the class action instead of just going to the small claims court?
"Since it is hard to replace Lenovo has learned from Apple and is hoping you buy a new laptop to replace the worn-out battery."
Slight difference. Unless you choose to jump platform you have to replace an Apple with an Apple however pissed off you might be with their tricks. If Lenovo piss you off with theirs you can go elsewhere unless everyone else goes down the same route.
"does BigBank have to be able to monitor the facilities manager arguing with the catering company about sandwiches ?"
From TFA:
A firm must take all reasonable steps to prevent an employee or contractor from making, sending, or receiving relevant telephone conversations and electronic communications on privately owned equipment which the firm is unable to record or copy.
"Set up a ltd so that YouTheCompany and YouThePerson are legally separate entities."
Always a good idea. Case in point: a local bookshop owner died suddenly back in October. The shop is still closed and looks likely to be so for some time. He was a sole trader so all the stock was his personal property (unless on sale or return if that applied to any of it) and he died intestate. Nothing can be done until probate is sorted out and that's complicated.
"The only way it can be fixed is if the seller (the one who stuck the brand sticker on it) will be made responsible at a FTC/Eu level to supply fixes for a reasonable amount of time."
It can be fixed PDQ. Security checking becomes a part of UL and CE (and the equivalent for other quality regimes) checking. That goes a long way to keeping unchecked products out of major markets, sufficient to make doing it right the more profitable option.
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