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Accessing Your Personal Information
How can I see what information a body or company holds about me?
Under Section 3 of the [broken link removed], you have a right to find out, free of charge, if a person (an individual or an organisation) holds information about you. You also have a right to be given a description of the information and to be told the purpose(s) for holding your information.
You must make the request in writing. The person must send you the information within 21 days.
Under Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts, 1988 and 2003, you have a right to obtain a copy, clearly explained, of any information relating to you kept on computer or in a structured manual filing system or intended for such a system by any entity or organisation. All you need to do is write to the organisation or entity concerned and ask for it under the Data Protection Acts.
Your request could read as follows:
Dear ...
I wish to make an access request under Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 for a copy of any information you keep about me, on computer or in manual form in relation to.... (Fill in as much information as possible to assist the organisations to locate the data that you are interested in accessing e.g. customer account number, staff number, or PPS number (if you are writing to a public sector organisation such as the Revenue Commissioners or the Department of Social Protection)).
You should also include any additional details that would help to locate your information - for example, a customer account number or staff number. You may be asked for evidence of your identity. This is to make sure that personal information is not given to the wrong person. When requesting some types of record, such as credit history or Garda records, it may also be useful to provide a list of previous addresses, previous names and your date of birth. You may be asked to pay a fee, but this cannot exceed €6.35.