If Charlotte Fakes Breached the Data Protection Act, Did Rangers Report This to Information Commissioner?

There are many theories about the identity of Charlotte Fakes and even more about where she obtained her information. I am not aware of anyone suggesting that anything Charlotte has revealed has been anything other than genuine – if the suggestion was that it was faked then I am sure this would have been trumpeted from the rooftops.

Bizarrely a lot of the coverage (especially on blogs and message boards) has been about the “clear” breaches of the Data Protection Act which Charlotte must be guilty of (at least according to those very same commenters).

As I wrote last week, the DPA is not this mighty raft of legislation capable of crushing all in its path. Instead it is a horribly convoluted piece of law-making which needs a packet of headache tablets and a darkened room to understand properly.

The former President of the United States clarifies Britain’s Data Protection legislation

One thing though which is very clear (at least in principle) is the duty imposed on a “data controller” to take action when they experience a security breach.

Revealed! The Conspiracy to Sink Rangers Football Club

I find it ironic that the regular accusation from Rangers-supporting blogs and websites is that there is some carefully orchestrated plan, involving people at the top of the Scottish football authorities, Celtic and the media to use bloggers like me to destroy the Ibrox outfit.

Anyone who writes regularly about “the largest football club insolvency in UK history”, as it is described on the global Duff and Phelps website, in anything less than glowing terms about the former owners of Rangers, and who raises issues about the present owner’s plans or indeed about elements of the support finds themselves tarred with the same brush.

However, the strain has become too much for me, and I must reveal the truth.

I now take you back to an event just over two months ago…