London Banter - View Single Post - Why can't Oyster show my Jan 2005 transactions?

Clive D. W. Feather · April 10th 05, 07:54 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In article . com,
writes
Maybe TFL decided that after 8 weeks everyone would have had plenty of
opportunity to query and correct any unresolved journeys so there isn't
much point keeping the details on file.

There are a lot of Oyster cards out there and each time it is touched
on a tube / bus / tramlink / dlr / national rail that supports prepay
reader a record is stored. The amount of space used up for millions of
people's transactions is likely to be substantial so it would seem
quite sensibly to destroy after a given time.

The amount of data (in megabyte terms) isn't likely to be significant in
this day and age.

The issue is the one that you mention first, that there "isn't much
point" in keeping it. The Data Protection Act requires that you have a
good reason for retaining personal data and must destroy it when that
good reason expires. "But we might get the odd query" isn't a good
reason - if they judge that 8 weeks is a reasonable time for people to
make queries, then data (other than involved in an ongoing query) should
be destroyed after 8 weeks.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is: