For Data to be "Personal", It Must Affect Privacy — So Says the English Court of Appeal

In Durant v Financial Services Authority [2003] EWCA Civ 1746, the English Court of Appeal has held that in order to be "personal data", information must affect a person's privacy. Mr. Durant, a former customer of Barclay's Bank PLC, had been unsuccessful in suing the Bank. The Financial Services Authority (FCA), the regulator for the financial services sector in the UK, was in possession of information relating to its investigation of Durant's original complaint about the Bank. Durant sought disclosure of this information, asserting that it was personal data under section 7 of the Data Protection Act, 1998 (DPA), and claiming that it would assist him to re-open his claims against the Bank. The DPA was enacted, in part, to give effect to the General Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC, intended to protect individuals' right to privacy, and the accuracy of their personal data. In determining whether the data was "personal data" within the meaning of the DPA, the Court of Appeal considered two factors: 1. whether the information was biographical in a significant sense; and 2. whether the focus of the information was the data subject rather than some other person with whom he may have been involved or some transaction or event in which he may have figured or have had an interest. Because the data held by the FSA was not "information that affects a person's privacy, whether in his personal or family life, business or professional capacity", the Court held that it was not personal data under the DPA and Durant was therefore not entitled to have access to it. For the text of the case, see: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2003/1746.html. For the DPA, see: http://www.bailii.org/uk/legis/num_act/dpa1998168/index.html#s1. For the text of the EC Directive, see: http://makeashorterlink.com/?R11D21E47. Summary by: Clare McCurley