We like data at CF Labs. We're committed to opening up and sharing data that we feel is in the public interest but is withheld unnecessarily or unfairly.
Follow us as we make requests under the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts to companies and government departments, talk to organisations to convince them to release their data and work to publish Consumer Focus data.
6 April 2010 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
Last month I posted some data on browser share across the Consumer Focus ‘web presence’. I’ve just updated the spreadsheet (link and details below) with figures from March 2010 (and March 2009 for comparison). Browser Share Headlines Internet Explorer has gained a 0.5% share of visits over the last month, but is down 10% on [...]
1 March 2010 by Dafydd Vaughan. 1 Comment.
Over the past few months there has been an increased fight for market share amongst the top browsers. As well as the traditional rivalry between Internet Explorer and Firefox, we’ve seen a new entrant to the market over the last year – Google Chrome. Microsoft has this week started offering a choice to European users [...]
19 October 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. 7 Comments.
Tesco have now responded to our data protection request. They’ve sent through a 13 page letter which includes printouts and screen shots from their various systems. Unfortunately, they haven’t provided me with an electronic copy of anything, so I’d have to retype everything in order to use the data for anything useful. We will be [...]
8 October 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
While we’re still waiting for a full response from Tesco, I wanted to tell you about a Data Protection Request that went right. At the same time as making the original Tesco request, I also sent out a few other requests to some smaller businesses. Included amongst this group was a business that used to [...]
14 September 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
This weekend I received a letter from Tesco, apologising for the loss of my original letter. In it they say that “despite extensive investigations, we are unable to find any trace of your letter”. This doesn’t do much to ease my concerns – there is still a letter with a copy of my driving license [...]
11 September 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. 2 Comments.
Yesterday I spent a bit of time on the phone to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to find out what to do next. The person I talked to seemed quite concerned that they have lost the letter I sent them – and believes I am right in assuming it is in itself a breach of [...]
8 September 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
Tesco didn’t call be back, so I called them. As expected, I was passed from department to department (and even ended up speaking to the Caretaker for their Dundee office at one point), however, I finally got a straight answer from them. It appears that my letter was received and was sent to another office, [...]
3 September 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
It appears that our request has hit a wall before it’s even started. I contacted Tesco today to ask why they hadn’t been in touch to confirm my identity. They had no record of the letter arriving. After showing them the Royal Mail proof of delivery and a bit of toing and froing, it appears [...]
15 August 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
The letter to Tesco was sent by recorded delivery on 14th August 2009. Tesco signed for the letter on 15th August. They now have 40 days to respond to the request. We’ve reproduced the text of the letter below (with some identifying elements removed).
14 August 2009 by Dafydd Vaughan. No Comments.
As we are all well aware, everytime you purchase something from a supermarket (or any other place for that matter), information about the purchase is recorded. Sometimes, this data contains information that means it can be traced back to you. This especially happens if you use a loyalty card such as Nectar or Tesco Clubcard. [...]
Consumer Focus is the independent champion for consumers across England, Wales, Scotland and (for postal consumers) in Northern Ireland. We operate across the whole of the economy, persuading businesses and public services to put consumers at the heart of what they do.
www.consumerfocus.org.uk
