GDPR and Irish politics.

You were wrong. Wordpress and Joomla are database backed. They have replaced Dreamweaver as the web development tool of choice for web developers. They both use a default Wordpress or Joomla database schema for their backend databases. This makes it easy for people who know little about databases to deploy this software and have a working site in a very short time. It may appear that I was being patronising but I was not. The "bespoke database" phrase is just an attempt to make it understandable for the non-technical public as if it was a tailored suit.

Based on experience of, among other things, surveying hundreds of millions of websites and categorising their usage, ETL is rarely as simple as it seems even with a small dataset like the Irish electoral register. One of the main problems with the Irish electoral register is its quality. The name of the voter may not actually be the one that the voter uses (Irish version) or the address may not be accurate. Then there is the issue of accents and other character based problems. Assuming that the data and structure is clean, like those people who "know a bit" about ETL, is a great way to end up with a mess.

As for hosting on AWS or Azure, that's not necessarily a good thing when it comes to hosting sensitive data. A dedicated server in an Irish datacentre might be a better approach as it would be possible to maintain a greater level of control over the data and the tech support people would be in the same time zone.

Regards...jmcc

And one that Varadkar didn't leak. :)

Regards...jmcc

Eh no, with all due respect, I'm not wrong. This isn't a website project. This is a database project, with online access. The absolute last thing you want with a project like this, with a database with millions of rows and sensitive data, is to have 'people who know little about databases' thinking that they know how to build online systems like this. This would be a web application with a secure back-end database. You're going to need a good database designer, you're going to need a networks expert to ensure secure connectivity, you're going to need some UI experts to make it usable on the doorstep and in the office. And you're not going to start with Joomla or Wordpress.

Bespoke is an entirely accurate and industry standard term for a project like this. It is, in effect, like a tailored suit - designed to suit the client's internal processes and needs.

There are indeed many data quality issues with the electoral register. The problem is that you don't own the data. You can put years of work into cleaning the data, and when the register is updated, you're back to the original data with all its faults. This isn't a one-off data import process. You need to work with the original register each time it is updated, each year or two. There is also a particular challenge with the register that there is no unique ID number for each person. So if Andrew Renko (Snr) dies and drops off the register and Andrew Renko (Jnr) turns 18 and joins the register, you're not going to know the difference.

Government data policy is 'Cloud First' for anything other than the most sensitive data. There is no reason not to consider Cloud for something like this.

You were wrong. You are still wrong. Wordpress and Joomla each have their own default database schema that installed as part of the installation process. They are database backed CMSes. This makes them different from CMSes that use static files to store content. Not knowing that they were database backed CMSes with their own default database schema, rather than just software, and yet claiming to have some familiarity with them does raise some questions about whether you understood the point that was being made. The point was that term "bespoke database" was being used in a rather self-aggrandising manner to differentiate it from more common stuff like Wordpress or Joomla. Most with a webdev background seem to be commenting on the basis of their familiarity with small database backed projects that may have used Wordpress or Joomla. I'm not sure what that FG schoolteacher/senator quoted in the Sindo/Indo was basing his comments upon but they did not display any understanding of domain names, databases or hosting.

The Irish electoral register is quite a small dataset though 'small' may be a matter of perspective. The way that updated data sources are generally handled is that a delta is created to identify the records that have changed between datasets. This approach, rather than than reinventing the wheel, is a more effective one and works unless the complete structure and data itself changes between updates.

It would be possible to correlate that data with other sources to maintain a relatively accurate profile for each household. I am not sure of the register still uses 'Snr' and 'Jnr' to differentiate between members of the same family. However, that multiple source approach would be more data-intensive and may actually cause GDPR issues.

The main arguments against using Cloud services for such a system would be security of the data and control over the data. Employing fulltime database developers and network security engineers may be a bit expensive even for well funded parties. Cloud services are not some silver bullet solution. I suppose that I could check the number of .COM websites using AWS or Azure quite easily but there are more websites running on dedicated and shared hosting than on Cloud services like AWS and Azure.

Regards...jmcc

Well I had no idea SF had data recorded on me until I logged a request after this news broke so it was a secret. Not once did I give consent to have this data recorded. Glad it was highlighted by the media.

When I got the report back they had my records which I have asked now twice for them to delete but still waiting.

It was a secret at the time though wasn't it? That's why it was exposed. You can see the dates in the correspondence from April 2021.

I never once said it is a secret now. I was saying it was when it was exposed it was a secret to me and acted on it. Hopefully the report now can get me delisted from the system.

Which I previously stated I provided to get the report and submit the request to get my information delisted from this database.

Perhaps they deleted that too. It would be best to follow up directly with them and ensure that they have deleted the data.

Regards...jmcc

WTF has this got to do with the thread? The goalposts are now in the car park.

Glad you agree though that the information SF recorded against me in a secret database without my knowledge should be deleted.

Not anymore yes you are correct thankfully. Back then it was. Not sure why you are struggling to understand this.