SANTA’S LIST BREAKS DATA PROTECTION RULES
by Hazed
The Galactic Administration’s Information Commissioner has filed a complaint against Santa over his naughty/nice list, because it contravenes the data protection act.
The law states that any company or organisation that holds personal information must register with the Information Commissioner and say where the information is to be stored and to what use it will be put. Santa has failed to do this.
In response to the complaint, Santa stated that he is not a company or an organisation, but a magical being, and the law therefore doesn’t apply to him. Besides, the jolly old man explained, everyone knows what the list is for: it’s a record of all the children and details whether they have been naughty or nice, for the purpose of deciding whether they get a present or not.
The complaint was sparked by a request early this year by a child whose name is being withheld, so she is known as Child X. When he, she or it did not receive any presents last year, Child X demanded to see the information Santa held about them, with a view to challenging any naughty incidents that might have affected the non-delivery of presents.
Under the terms of the data protection law, any data subject has a right to be supplied with the data held about them. But Santa refused to release the information to Child X, stating that the list contained proprietary information that needed to be kept confidential for commercial reasons.
This was when the Information Commissioner got involved, and discovered that Santa had never registered as a data controller.
Should Santa fail to respond to the complaint in a manner which the Commission considers acceptable, we could see the fat red-suited man in court!
But since the wheels of justice turn very slowly, this won’t affect Santa’s present delivery schedule this Christmas.
