Sheffield Council to decide the fate of your ANPR data

[andyrad29]

 

The data is held on a secure server, which is not part of the Council's normal ICT network

 

 

 

In other words left on a laptop/memory stick on the seat of a train!

[sccsux]

Will this include vehicle registration information or will it be just the journey information

 

Planner1 has already stated that the plate information is to be retained (for up to 5 years - though he doesn't really know for how long - which is rather worrying for someone on the steering group - maybe the wheel has fell off) in an unencrypted (raw feed) format.

 

Yet he says there is no need to worry about privacy issues:loopy:

 

In other words left on a laptop/memory stick on the seat of a train!

 

It's happened before..

[Planner1]

In other words left on a laptop/memory stick on the seat of a train!

 

It will need to be a big memory stick as the system is expected to record over 2 million number plate records per day when fully operational.

[esme]

Planner1 has already stated that the plate information is to be retained (for up to 5 years - ....

 

if this is the case then I am extremely concerned and will be registering my objections with the head leader of the steering comittee

 

mainly these are that though the current council have no plans to link the data to the DVLA there is no guarantee that a future council would not and further there is no guarantee that a future council would not sell on this information to an interested third party who would then use the DVLA to resolve these names back to their owners

 

I also believe that this scheme may contravene the data protection act and will be contacting the information commissioners office to verify this

[Planner1]

I guess what I'm trying to ask here is this, will there be any way for anyone with a registration number to find out what journeys, if any, that vehicle made on such and such, a date using the data that will be retained

 

because the only way I can think of preventing that is to discard the registration information automatically once the route has been determined

 

can you tell me if this is done please and if you don't know if it is done can you tell me who to ask

 

The data will initially be used to give real-time traveller information, ie journey times between Point A and Point B on particular routes.

 

After that is will be stored on a server and can be accessed by the staff of the SYITS partners (Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, SYPTE) who are involved in data analysis and modelling. The data has numerous uses and may need to be accessed on a number of ocasions over time.

 

The Police may require the data to help them with enquiries and there could possibly be occasions when data is handed over as the result of a court order.

[sierraman]

If your vehicle is legally allowed to be on the road, taxed, Mot'd and insured, why would anyone be intimidated by a camera monitoring traffic movement. I've been in Torbay last week, cctv camera's everywhere and do you know what, I think its a good idea in today's present climate. If you've nothing to hide and are legally going about your business where is the problem? Just making the streets safer for law abiding citizens.

[esme]

.... with the head leader of the .......

 

DOH! I mean project manager, thank you again for the contact details @ Planner1

[Planner1]

Message from the SYITS Project Manager:

 

"The syITS ANPR system is currently being installed, final decisions have not yet been made about how long data will be retained or how it will used after its initial use to calculate real-time journey times.

 

However, the principles have already been agreed that all data will he held and transferred securely and that no attempt will be made to link number plates to any personal data such as registered keepers. Comments made on this forum are being taken into account in preparing the protocol which will govern how the data is used.

 

We want to retain the number plate information so that we can distinguish buses and other vehicles (such as taxis) which can make use of bus lanes and gates and so will have different journey times and routes from general traffic. The Council and the PTE have records of the number plates of all buses, taxis etc. - we will only use the number plate and vehicle class information for this work, no data that could be used to identify any person will be incorporated. We will not be looking at individual journeys, the kinds of question we want to answer are "of those vehicles arriving at point C what proportion came from point A and what proportion from point B, and what were the average journey times".

 

This kind of information is essential for planning new transport investment and we have to provide it in order to get funding from central government. It is expensive to obtain by means of normal transport surveys - ANPR data offers a potentially much more economical and comprehensive way of collecting it, which will save costs to council tax payers and improve the quality of decision making."

 

I can confirm that the issues that have been raised on this thread have been discussed at length at an SYITS steering group meeting yesterday. SYITS officers have gone away to consider what, if anything, needs to be done to respond to the concerns expressed.

[esme]

If your vehicle is legally allowed to be on the road, taxed, Mot'd and insured, why would anyone be intimidated by a camera monitoring traffic movement. I've been in Torbay last week, cctv camera's everywhere and do you know what, I think its a good idea in today's present climate. If you've nothing to hide and are legally going about your business where is the problem? Just making the streets safer for law abiding citizens.

 

because where I go and how I get there is my business and as long as I don't break any laws I have the expectation of being able to go about my business unmolested and I regard constant surveillance as an intrusion into a persons privacy and a form of intimidation

 

I've had similar arguments with other people regarding the indiscriminate collection of data via cctv and the viewpoint that it makes us safer from criminal activity, it doesn't, if anything it creates a mountain of irrelevant observations that serve to obscure rather than reveal criminal activity, if anything the main output from all these cctv systems seems to be a plethora of 'camera cop' type television programs and when did the aim of making us safer turn into entertainment ?

 

you want to catch criminal behaviour then you need to target them more effectively not indiscriminately gather information on everyone in the faint hope that some data mining technique may reveal a previously unregarded criminal activity

 

privacy is a right especially for those with nothing to hide

[hsb98c]

faint hope that some data mining technique may reveal a previously unregarded criminal activity

 

Who said anything about faint hopes? I agree that this data is potentially dangerous in the wrong (or even right) hands but please keep this in perspective. It is not tracking every movement as it only covers certain roads, and does not know where you ended up or even where you came from. It can't tell if you were out shopping, dropping the kids off or where you work.