IrishWater and goverment are lying about your PPS number

Uproar has finally started over people realising that they have a right to keep their personal data private. IrishWater have been facilitated by their friends in the media to explain their position, but sadly their explanations fall short. Equally as unfortunate is the fact that pretty much every media outlet is not challenging IrishWater, whether this is due to the fact that IrishWater are currently spending a very large advertising budget or due to a corrupt media class is something you can judge for yourself.

For those of you that are not aware of what exactly your PPS number is and why its important in relation to the current situation, here is a quick explanation. A PPS number is a unique identifier for a person, sometimes used so government services can verify who you are to make sure you are not using government services or allowances twice. It’s essentially an ID number. In the world of software and databases, this is called a “Key”. This key unlocks the door and allows the viewing of sensitive data such as Name, address and date of birth. As explained in a previous post, this information is invaluable to marketing companies and other private organisations.

IrishWater say they want your PPS number to verify that the data you supplied to IrishWater is correct. Once verified, IrishWater will no longer store your PPS number or sell it to anybody (note they have finished denying that the company and its database will be sold). That’s all well and good, but the problem is that once IrishWater have verified your data to be correct, it’s in their database with their own unique ID or “Key”. So, for all intents and purposes, IrishWater have effectively made a copy of your “Key”, and a very large chunk of a government database. IrishWater have been saying that other utilities such as telephone companies have PPS numbers, however this is stretching the truth. Fixed line telecom companies get PPS numbers for senior citizens claiming an allowance. Small databases are not worth much, the value in the IrishWater data is the entirety of its database,it will cover almost every address and every citizen in the country. Especially valuable in the future is the data belonging to the children of today.

A public database is being moved into private hands by stealth. There is no doubt at all that the entire process is fundamentally flawed. The question must now be is whether this is due incompetence or the actual plan all along was to build a valuable database as a saleable asset. Considering that a number of the senior managers in IrishWater came from the Poolbeg incinerator project, questions need to be asked. Was the €100 million spent on that project without any explanations due to incompetence or was that trick planned all along also?

An IrishWater PR person was on the radio telling us that there have been communication issues in relation to the whole PPS issue. What sort of an explanation is that? IrishWater are spending a whopping €180 million (of our money) on establishing itself and still cannot explain what is going on. Imagine going into an expensive restaurant and paying up front for the most expensive meal, the chef then arrives over with your meal and says “I don’t really know what’s wrong with the food, but you should eat it anyway”. This all smells like another Poolbeg (the sewage plant this time).

What’s even more curious is the silence from other arms of the state in relation to this. Silence from the line Minister in charge. The Data Protection Commissioner has gone to ground. IrishWater and their friends in the media have been busying spouting the line that the commissioner approves of the gathering PPS of numbers, however last Friday a notice appeared on the IrishWater website stating that “Please see below our updated Data Protection Notice that we are currently reviewing with the office of the Data Protection Commissioner”. So, IrishWater are busy scaring people into handing over very important data without any permission. Why the rush? Remember, once you hand it over, your privacy is gone.

The privatisation of such a large database is very bad for the privacy and lives of citizens. We already know that privatisation of public assets is good for a select few connected insiders and bad for the public. A lot of you reading this will be too young to remember what happened with Eircom, Eircom used to be called Telecom Eireann, a state run telecoms service. It was incredibly inefficient, so the decision was made to privatise it. Since it was privatised, it’s been asset stripped and sold a number of times. We now have a poor broadband infrastructure due to under investment in this now crucial asset. The story about how citizens were conned into parting with their money to “invest” in shares is one for another day, but a quick Google will tell all. A quick Google about the sale of the ESAT telecoms license will also tell you a lot. Is it a coincidence that FG and Denis O’Brien are now all over IrishWater?

Strange how public assets are privatised and private losses are socialised? The banks went bust and all sorts of laws were passed over night to ensure that the taxpayers would take a loan to bailout the banks. This was sold to as a bailout for Ireland, it was not a bailout for Ireland, it was a bailout for bankers. It was a loan to the taxpayers. To repay this loan, we now must sell our most important assets, our data and our water. We don’t know how valuable a resource our data and water will be in 20 years. We do know our population is growing, so water will be an increasingly scare resource. At least when it’s in public ownership we have control. Will our children and grandchildren forgive us for giving away such a precious resource? Why should we be selling our assets to pay off debts that are not ours?

Our media’s lack of interest in questioning IrishWater is expected. We know RTE is a propaganda arm of the government, we know who owns most of the rest of our national media. So, it’s up to us to bail ourselves out. We have social media and its time to spread the message that it’s OUR data and OUR water. If we refuse to hand over our PPS numbers, then it makes the sale of IrishWater a lot more difficult.

Spread the word,get on Twitter,Facebook and other sharing services and tell your friends why you are keeping your data private.

They have robbed enough from us already. 

We are not letting it happen again.

Why IrishWater really wants your PPS number and other private data.

Your name, address and date of birth are valuable pieces of information. From these bits of data, clever software can work out your approximate social class and target you with direct marketing. The problem with these bits of data is that they are not verified. Nobody actually knows that its 100% real. Nobody knows if Michael Murphy at 100 Main Street is a real and active consumer available to be targeted. Adding a PPS number to this data is a dream for marketers and others that want to track and monitor people. Your PPS number stays with you for life, so by giving this data to a third party they will be able to track every address you lived at and deduce all kinds of information from that (such as who you live with, where your relations are and all sorts of other pieces of what we call “metadata”). Essentially, data and in particular personal data is valuable and becoming increasingly invaluable.

Its not just marketing companies that will love this data, this data combined with records from medical insurance companies will be worth a small fortune. All sorts of big businesses want this data and as technology evolves and improves this data becomes more valuable. In the future, this data will be used in ways that we don’t know about yet. Simply put, we don’t know the value of all this data in 5 years time, that’s why it’s essential it’s kept to ourselves. Does any other utility or service ask the names and dates of birth for all children in a house? No. It’s your private dwelling, which is protected under the constitution and you have the right to refuse to divulge this information.

IrishWater are building a comprehensive database of personal information that will be sold to whoever buys IrishWater.  How do we know this? Up until 19^th September it was stated on their website

“if Irish Water or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case Customer data held by it about its Customer will be one of the transferred assets.”

Curiously, this piece of text was removed, with the following explanation

“Please see below our updated Data Protection Notice that we are currently reviewing with the office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Amendments have been made primarily to clarify to the customer the purposes for which personal data (including PPS numbers) is collected.”

This means the plan IS to sell IrishWater and its databases, just as Bord Gais was sold and all the senior people getting nice hefty “bonuses” that would make a lotto winner blush.

Even more worrying is this statement from their website

“Data that we collect from you may be transferred to a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA"). ”

This means that your data can be exported to somewhere that Irish or European law does not apply. So, by giving any data to IrishWater, it can be whisked away to another organisation at the touch of a button. Both frightening and dangerous. Why have we not heard from any data protection experts through our media? Well, Denis OBrien owns significant amounts of our media, and RTE seem to have a policy of being nice to IrishWater. It’s up to us on social media to spread the truth and inform people, because RTE is now essentially a mouthpiece for the government, you won’t hear the truth there.

Imagine if tomorrow the government said that they might sell the entire database of PPS numbers and associated data? There would be uproar. What’s happening with IrishWater is exactly the same thing. Yes, IrishWater and the government are going to tell us to trust them, it won’t be sold and the usual fake promises. An IrishWater spokesperson said this week “IrishWater can’t be sold because it’s in the legislation that it cant be”. Well, this is Ireland. When the right people want legislation to be changed it happens at the drop of a hat. Remember when the bankers came looking for money? Emergency legislation was passed and hey presto, €80 billion was made disappear over night. Sorry, it did not disappear, we are paying it off now and IrishWater is yet another new tax to pay for the bankers. The tax that we used to use to pay for water has been diverted to pay for bank debt.

Take a look at the personnel involved with IrishWater, the head man, John Tierney (a man whose record of incompetence would make Basil Faulty blush) was responsible for the failed Dublin incinerator project. €100 million was made disappear under the guise of “consultancy fees”. No records of how it was spent, it’s just gone. Not a foundation dug or brick laid, just a big black hole where all our cash went. How this man was given the job to head IrishWater is beyond belief.

Who is installing the water meters? A good friend of FG, Mr Denis OBrien. How OBrien got this gig is questionable at best. A year before the IrishWater tender he bought a company called SiteServ. SiteServ was bust and owed €100 million to Anglo. Other companies offered more money, but for some reason OBrien got his hands on it. Then hey presto, SiteServ’s debt was written off, this means that the debt was moved to the taxpayer. Then another hey presto, SiteServ gets the contract to install water meters. It’s not known how much SiteServ is being paid for this, even though it’s our money being used to do it.

The government and IrishWater tell us that water is a precious resource. Despite what the government and IrishWater want you to believe, we are not stupid and we know that water is precious. How many houses, bars or restaurants do you go into and see all the taps turned on wasting water? Almost none. The vast majority of people don’t waste water. Instead of spending €50 million on consultants, surely a public information campaign on how to conserve water would have been more appropriate? Maybe a subsidy to all households to have outside water containers to trap rainwater to be used for purposes where non treated water is required? No, instead they start with the usual bullying tactics demanding money and data.  IrishWater is nothing to do with conserving water, it’s about lining the pockets of rich politicians, civil servants and their friends.

IrishWater spent millions on state of the art IT systems, we were told that this was needed to make it a world class company (in reality it’s so it can be sold off quicker). Yet, somehow in the first month of sending out its information packs it accidentally send out over 6000 letters with compromised personal data. Personal data from one person send to another, a data breach.

Can you honestly trust this collection of people with another of our most precious resources, personal data?