Secrets you’re allowed to keep

THE Data Protection Act regulates the processing of ‘personal data’ relating to an identifiable living individual.

It covers information such as medical notes, education records or personnel files.

The Act aims to protect an individual’s ‘right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data’.

Ordinarily the people holding the information are required to seek permission from the subject before releasing their data to a third party.

In the case of Tigger, it would appear that the new ‘owners’ refused to give that consent.

Mrs Young did give permission for her information to be passed on – even though she correctly feared that the people who had Tigger wouldn’t respond. The Act recognises that it is sometimes appropriate to disclose personal data for certain purposes.

In the case of Tigger,can exemption would give Staffordshire Police power to request the new owner’s details if officers suspected a crime may have taken place, such as the cat being stolen.

By the same token, the exemption would allow Petlog to release the new owners’ details to police without seeking their permission first.

An spokesman from the Information Commissioner’s Office said: ‘People are right to expect that the personal information they give to a company cannot be passed to others without consideration of the law.

‘The law does specifically recognise that information will sometimes need to be shared to prevent or detect crime.’