GDPR and Irish politics.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359371#Comment_118359371

Exactly, a non compliance issue not warranting fines or sanctions, just a recommendation that they meet compliance standards.

P.S. We were told at length that it wasn't the DPC's job to 'know' about these things. I suggested he/she should be pro-active rather than reactive and was told that couldn't be. Oh how the wheel turns. 😁

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359364#Comment_118359364

So you agree its not a secret...since everyone now knows...or do you intend to do what yous always do and comtinuely double-down on silliness

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359266#Comment_118359266

What part of the post are you finding difficult to understand...i feel it was quite clear and this is a poor sidestep to avoid engagement,as yous been destroyed with facts and logic

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359187#Comment_118359187

Actually, it's not the electoral register. The register is starting point. The canvass outcomes, issues raised and voter intentions are layered on top of the register, which is where the real value lies

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359143#Comment_118359143

I know that the Gardai have the Pulse system to record information about criminal activity but I don't know what it on it.

That is an example of another secret database that I know exists, so yes, we can call the Abu database a secret database, because only certain people have access to it.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359371#Comment_118359371

If Leo was overseeing that, we would be hearing calls for his resignation from certain quarters.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360868#Comment_118360868

The stretching continues.

If SF or any other party implicated in this compliance investigation were compliant then your info would not be 'secret' from you.

Try again.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118361650#Comment_118361650

The database is secret, Francie, get used to the terminology.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118361765#Comment_118361765

It's another wild goose chase blanch.

I told you this would come to very little and that what we need is a proactive DPC or just forget about it.

Anyone without an agenda here knew from the start that all political parties were not compliant and play fast and loose with our data.

I still think it matters very little if the data is just being used for electioneering purposes. But that didn't stop some from getting outraged and milking it like a gold rush for their agenda's/

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118359581#Comment_118359581

You are still wrong. This is what I said: "The phrase "bespoke database" sounds rather odd. Perhaps it means that it is not like a Wordpress or Joomla database which has a standard schema (structure) that does not vary from installation to installation."

You then proceeded off on a tangent about WP and Joomla not having a standard schema. This is wrong. Both use a database backend and each has a standardised database schema as otherwise they would not work with the PHP side of the software used to generate each webpage. The installation script for each CMS creates the database schema for the database. The software can be used by people without much programming or web development experience. The software and database requirements are published on the Wordpress and Joomla websites. They are quite clear. This isn't a "native DB facility" issue. Both have MySQL/Mariadb as an option for their database backend. The whole process has become so automated that webhosters now offer Wordpress as a one-click installation for their customers. The whole WP/Joomla tangent is based on your simple misreading of a comment.

This delta approach is how things are done with large datasets. I'm not sure if you have any experience of working with large datasets (tens of millions or hundreds of millions of rows of data). In extremely simplified terms, it is a New/Deleted/Changed problem. The first step (after ETL) is to check for new entries. The second is to check for entries that were in the old dataset but are no longer in the new dataset. The third step is to check for changes or transfers. Using the address and occupants combination on the older dataset would help speed up matters but standardisation of the names and addresses is a major concern with this type of database.

The addressing issue would also have to be dealt with during ETL as new addresses and renaming does occur. There are commercial solutions available when it comes to addresses. (An Post's https://www.geodirectory.ie/products-services/geoaddress-online ). There are issues with initially approaching this problem at the voter level. That would be a kind of premature optimisation in software development terms. The dataset in this particular case is quite small though standardisation of the data is important. This strays into the area of structured versus unstructured data but that's a slightly different topic and it may be one which you have not encountered.

To people with just web development experience (this is a general comment rather than one aimed at you) this may seem like a simple online database application. That would be a naive approach as it would be better to keep the register updates and comparison work off the publically facing servers and only publish a limited and cleaned set to the public facing database and webservers.

There is a range of data available that could be used and the geo directory link above would be one of the simplest as it provides accurate addresses. There are other marketing databases that could be acquired but they may be legally problematic when used by political parties. There are other openly available sources such as the births, marriages and deaths announcements and sites that could help improve the quality of the data. The feedback from canvassers and election workers could also be used to continually improve the quality of the data held as they were the ones who, pre-Covid, used to attend funerals and other social events. This kind of tracking database might be well beyond what is required by political parties. Even using marked registers could create an unintentional GDPR issue.

The phrase "bespoke database" is a rather pompous one for a document that is aimed at the general public. This is a literary criticism. It would be helpful for the public and the journalists covering this issue if matters were phrased simply and explained clearly. Even calling it a "custom database" would have been much better.

Regards...jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118360072#Comment_118360072

Its a sliding scale of likelyhood to vote based on the torrens stragedy (we learned about this in cspe in school)....hence why yous have some mouth-breathers delighted with emselves being anti-shinner contarians,confused as to why canvasers never call to em.....to make better use of canvasers time

Its not exactly 3rd secret of fatima stuff....labour and ff have a similar effort around here anyway,but use high lighters and local activists to ferry about canditadates