Data protectio-Bank of Ireland - The law.

My partner was a Bank of Ireland customer and she bought an insurance policy from a subsidiary of the bank ( Irish Life ). She relocated about five years back and closed her account with the bank.
Last year she learned that her name and banking details were included with over 30,000 other customers when some unencrypted laptops were stolen. She was somewhat relieved by a statement from the Data Protection Commissioner, basically the officer stated that he was examining the loss. She has learned in the past few days that the Data Protection Commissioner cannot prosecute the bank, the insurance company or the people in whose care the data was held. Now this is not case of an official not doing his or her job --- the Data Protection Officer has no power to prosecute in the matter. It seems that we do have an Act of the Oireachtas but absolutely nothing to back it up, no penalties whatsoever it seems. My partner has spoken to the Financial Regulator but this leads only to more ambiguity. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

has she been affected somehow by the theft - did she lose money, or is it the principle you are concerned about?

Thanks for your reply. She has not suffered any monetary loss, she has closed off any chance that she may do so in the future. It is probably not the principle either but she/we cannot understand that two Data Protection Acts have passed through the Oireachtas and neither appears to have any teeth. She has nothing but praise for the people employed at the office of the Data Protection Commissioner but thinks that the legislation is pointless.

who do you want to punish?

The bank (a corporate entity); the unfortunate staff member who had the machine just prior to being stolen, or the thief?

Ravima said:

who do you want to punish?

Click to expand...

She does not wish to punish anyone but wants the bank to behave in a responsible way when keeping her personal details. In this case up to ten laptops were stolen or mislaid at different points, Data Protection were not notified until several months later. Now anybody can make a mistake but when a big financial institution flouts an act of parliament - there should be some deterrent.

Slater said:

My partner has spoken to the Financial Regulator but this leads only to more ambiguity. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

My suggestion would be to stop wasting the financial regulators time with this trivial matter. You or your partner havent suffered any financial loss.