Council tenants the latest victims of big data tyranny darcy

A petition has been set up to put pressure on the executive of Westmeath County Council to retract tenants' data sent to Irish Water on Monday last.

Sinn Féin councillor Una D'Arcy, who opened the petition at Change.org, has described the executive's move as evidence of how "big data has supercharged the potential for discrimination by councils and the government in ways that victims don't even see."

The impending data transfer was first flagged in November by council officials in November as an inevitability which the local authority was "statutorily bound" to obey.

Tenants disagree however, and the lack of notice they received prior to the transfer of information last Monday has intensified their anger.

Cllr D'Arcy is inviting not only tenants but all residents of Westmeath to sign the petition, saying that Irish Water's approach to data collection had ramifications for everybody.

"You are not a tenant of Westmeath County Council - does this concern you?" she asks. "Yes it does - because what else does Westmeath County Council have whirring around in its data banks, ready to be released should it be asked for?

"They have my details, my name, age, address, family information. They have my bank details. They know what organisations I volunteer with, through their collection of community group info in the Public Participation Network Scheme.

"They know all about my car, I tax it there. They know about my taste in books; I have a library card.

"[They] know that because I am choosing to share that information. I consent.

"Until now I associated the use of mining information as limited to the realm of TV drama.

"But recently I have turned away from the drama version and started to learn more about how our info is used, what ‘privacy’ it is given and [how] the new civil rights organisations that challenge how “big data” — both in the public and private sectors — are concerned that it can be used to uniquely affect disadvantaged minorities."

Cllr D'Arcy's petition can be found here.