Very cool, if true

Yay ! :-)

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The percentages at the bottom and the images aren't in synch. I assume they're updating at different frequencies.

I also assume you have the bandwidth to deal with this...

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Which percentages at the bottom?

If someone on your flist fills it in, it takes a few seconds (to a few minutes) before your image is regenerated.

I /hope/ I have the bandwidth :P

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At the bottom of the report page.

I shall keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't go _too_ viral...

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feorag.livejournal.com

A familiar userpic there! Nice to see it spreading.

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I know Robhu, by the way. Lovely bloke, doesn't seem to be doing any data mining at all, so I'm very happy to spread this one about.

Now, get those percentages changed!

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The other things I might do:

1. Make the image a bit shinier
2. Take account of whether people want to vote or not (atm it's just another party choice)
3. Have a report showing the % political views of LJ (and / or your friendsfriends page)

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wildeabandon.livejournal.com

You might want to add "an independent candidate" to the list of options?

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Done.

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Now that's service :->

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Cool stuff!

Just a quick heads-up - You are sure that you're doing what you're legally obliged to (e.g. notifying Information Commissioner?) for processing sensitive personal information?

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Unless it's personally identifying, I don't believe he has to do anything.

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Indeed - but I can't see how he can run the service without storing LJ IDs, which I think count as personally identifying.

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They do? Pseudnyms aren't necessarily linked to a specific person - I have no idea who half the people on my flist are.

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Er, yes, some LJ names may well not personally identify individuals but some unequivocally do. If the DPA only applied if some of the data was you were processing was personally identifiable then nobody would be covered. :-)

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Does the DPA apply to data that is not stored or processed in the UK?

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It does if the data is controlled by a UK-based person or organisation (offshoring data outside the EU is a particular minefield for companies to navigate).

But if everyone in the chain is outside the UK and it's all online ... I dunno, to be honest.

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Really? That's odd, I've heard of companies in the UK who store and process their data in America and so don't have to comply.

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Well, the 8th data protection principle (http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection_guide/list_of_the_data_protection_principles.aspx) explicitly says

Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

There's a list of countries that are officially adequate, and the USA is OK if the company you're using/part of has signed up to Safe Harbor.

You (as the UK data controller) can send data elsewhere, but you have to make sure that it's adequately protected - plenty of guff on how you can legally do this on that last link. Basically, it's hassle, and you can avoid a lot of extra paperwork and effort if you keep it within the EU (strictly, the EEA, which includes a few extra countries).

This is all assuming that you are essentially a UK operation (person, organisation, company), which is the framework I know.

There's two common exceptions I can think of off the top of my head. (Ignoring the easy one of stripping out the personally-identifying bits.)

If you're a large multinational with one small leg in the UK then you're probably much better off biting that bullet and getting the Information Commissioner to formally agree that your internal procedures for data handling meet UK DPA standards, because you'd save significant resource by operating a single data handling regime internally for all your operating arms (which would need to be strictest-common-denominator), rather than N systems for the N different legislative regimes you work in. And AIUI for smaller companies that operate in both the UK and the US, it's way easier to do it that way round (host/process data in and under American regulations, get UK approval for your arrangements) than to try to convince the American authorities that the British DPA fits the American requirements.

The other common situation is the don't know/don't care one. So e.g. if you were a small web company and weren't up to speed on the UK regulatory situation, you might just do what you thought was right; if you came to the attention of the UK Info Commissioner you'd probably be told to shape up and it'd end there so long as you did so in polynomial time. Or if you were a bold company (in the Yes Minister sense of bold) you might try it on by deliberately having all your web services based out of the US and arguing that you weren't processing personal data in the UK, but if it came to the attention of the Information Commissioner that you'd done so deliberately to evade the legislation I wouldn't fancy your chances.

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I haven't sent the data anywhere, the data was entered by the users on to a server in another country.

When the user enters their data it is not me (legally) who is entering it in a country outside of the UK, it's them.

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That's not my understanding of how the legislation works - obviously I don't know the details of how you're operating here (and don't want or need to), but under the DPA the data controller is 'a person who (either alone or jointly or in common with other persons) determines the purposes for which and the manner in which any personal data are, or are to be, processed.' Which would surely cover the developer of a website with access to the db.

So - again, on my understanding, and I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice - if I (a UK citizen) were to set up a website collecting personal data from other UK citizens, I'd be regarded as the data controller for DPA purposes regardless of where the site was hosted.

One last quick point (which was also my first): 'political opinions' is explicitly one of the sorts of data that count as 'sensitive personal data' under the DPA which require extra care.

I'm not trying to argue that you are or aren't covered (obviously, I suspect you probably are) - that has to be for you to decide. I just don't want someone who's spent some genuine effort building an interesting tool for others to enjoy to get in to trouble because they didn't know about the legal situation.

Best of luck, anyway - it's a fun service, and people are obviously enjoying it.

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perlmonger.livejournal.com

I'd like to see the difference in results if you asked for both preferred party, and the party people will actually vote for.

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Yeah, I thought about doing that, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

Perhaps for the next election!

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I find it quite amusing that your post about the meme occurred before even mine! ;-)

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That's just how up to date I am!

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bracknellexile.livejournal.com

So will you be posting the election results the day before polling?

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Ooh, let's see if we can persuade him to do that but with the lottery results ;-)

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Hung parliament. Lib Dems to have clearly got a higher percentage of the vote than their number of seats suggests, and this to cause a large fuss :->

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chuma.livejournal.com

I'll go one step further on this prediction. Tories to have the largest share of the vote and get less seats than Labour.

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Yup, I agree.
Vote results: Conservatives->Lib Dem->Labour
Seat results: Labour->Conservatives->Lib Dem

Public to get very confused and upset.

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lpetrazickis.livejournal.com

Fun results from the 1936 Canadian federal election in Manitoba:

Conservatives, 42%, 0 seats
Lib-Progs, 20%, 7 seats
Liberals, 18%, 4 seats
Progressives, 11%, 4 seats
Labour, 8%, 2 seats

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Insanity!

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khbrown.livejournal.com

You clearly have a disproportionate number of friends in Northern Ireland.

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I think Julie's friends slant the figures somewhat :->

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khbrown.livejournal.com

What do you think about the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib-Dems not fielding candidates in Northern Ireland?

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I don't know much about it - but I assume that it's for historical reasons, because they never got any seats over there anyway.

I'd be in favour of them having candidates over there, thinking about it, because I think there ought to be options for people whose primary motivation is not whether NI is part of the UK or ROI.

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khbrown.livejournal.com

Should any nominally UK party be compelled to field candidates in every constituency? What do you think about the SNP? As a nationalist party are they automatically disqualified? Who really represents Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein in the UK mainland?

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