Some very interesting thoughts on information privacy and the Data Protection Act from a lecture at theCaledonian Research Foundation(RSE)by Baroness Onora O'Neill - "Can Information be Personal".

"The definition [of ‘processing’] in the Act is a compendious definition and it is difficult to envisage any action involving data which does not amount to processing within this definition"

I was amused reading this lecture this week as it co-incided with finding an example not covered by the Act - from the ICO we find a press releasefrom 2007!

"However, the Regulations only apply to messages sent over a public electronic communications network and we have concluded that Bluetooth messages are not in fact sent using such a network."

Nor a lot of research networks of the last number of years! (e.g. Haggle...)

I am told this loophole is to close.