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.

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Charlotte Fakes and the Data Protection Act – Part 1 – Is Charlotte’s Web Broken?

The Charlotte Fakes Twitter account has been closed and, at least for now, the flow of information from that source has stopped.

This has been a cause of much rejoicing amongst the supporters of Rangers (or at least the small number who frequent their popular message boards). Various fellows there have been suggesting that the police, and in one suggestion the Metropolitan Police, are knocking on Charlotte’s door.

One of the accusations is that Charlotte has broken the Data Protection Act and, as Jack Irvine said in his interview with Andy Muirhead of Scotzine (which can be read in full here):-