Initial DPC complaint

gistfile1.txt

Before the age of majority, I was baptised into the catholic church as were many others. As an adult, I wish not to be a member. I have filed a formal intent to defect with the diocese of Dublin, but the church in 2010 formally banned anyone listed as a church member from leaving the church. As the church membership numbers are used for purposes of political lobbying and allocation of public funds, I wish to have my name removed from the church's records. 

Accordingly, once the GDPR took effect, I contacted the dioceses of Kerry and Dublin who would have such records, and instructed them to delete them in accordance with the GDPR. The diocese of Dublin has not seen fit to respond. The diocese of Kerry responded and claimed  that the church has consulted within its dioceses and sought legal advice and believe that they do not have to accede to this request under the GDPR though they are very vague on their reasoning and refused to specify the exact section of the Data Protection Act 2018 under which they claim such derogation.

My emails with the diocesan secretary of the diocese of Kerry, Fr. Nicholas Flynn, are attached. His position appears to be that the records held by the church are of historical significance and therefore cannot be deleted. In counterpoint I offer the following:

1) I am still alive. This is my data; the events within it are so recent as to not be historical in nature. 

2) I do not consent to the church storing my data or processing it or using it for the purposes they use it for. I believe that this supersedes their allegation that a record of my having been inducted into the church is of historical significance.

3) I have a birth certificate, issued by the state of Ireland, archived in state records. I have been counted on numerous census-takings by the state. This information is more extensive than the church records and as such the church records are not of historical significance as the information they contain is duplicated by the state. 

continued...
4) As the information held by the church records is duplicated by the state, I believe that the principle of data minimisation referred to in section 42(2) of the Data Protection Act 2018 clearly prevents the derogation afforded by section 54.

5) As the information held by the church records is utilised for the purposes of lobbying and obtaining public funds, I believe that section 61(3) of the Data Protection Act 2018 also would apply, and as such the church should not be permitted to use my data to claim me as a member when lobbying. 

6) No state function in regard to myself after the age of majority has been officiated by the church and as such section 73(1)(b) of the Data Protection Act 2018 does not apply nor does section 49(b). 

7) I believe Section 71(7) explicitly requires there to be a time limit set for how long data is archived or to carry out periodic reviews of whether the data is still required. Neither is being done in this case.

Further, I wish to point out explicitly that the church has been most reluctant to respond to this request and does not give the appearance of believing they have any duties under the GDPR as a data controller. I am contacting the Data Protection Commission because the church has now broken off communication in the hopes that I will cease to pursue this request and anecdotal evidence from like-minded individuals pursuing similar requests indicates that this is a systemic response and not an individual one. 

I believe a measure of intervention from the Data Protection Commission is required to clarify matters in this regard.