It's certainly debatable whether there can be "private" email on a
corporate email system. Certainly in Leeds - where private email is
prohibited - any and all email is owned by the Council. Staff are made
aware of this in the relevant Code of Practice. So any discovery process
will reveal all.
The danger in attempting to separate private and public email is that an
individual may privacy to prevent access to email that contains material
that is racially or sexually abusive or discriminatory against another
member of staff or indeed a member of the public. Staff may hold personal
opinions but they must not express them on the corporate email system.
(On a related topic, I've come across an opinion that under the new RIPA
legislation [now being referred to as the "grim RIPA"] all organisations
will need to notify all their staff with email facilities that it might be
intercepted and read by the security services!)
On a more practical level, where email is concerned, the material is
certain to contain personal data relating to others. You would need to
seek their individual permission to disclose or take the scissors to any
reference in the email.
Bradford Council had an incident some months ago where a request for
subject access for email was received. If my memory serves me correctly,
over 600 pages of email were printed in this case.
Roger Cook
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: The Act and Email
Author: "Thomas Rochford" <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date: 25/08/00 09:44
Dear Colleagues,
I am being asked to provide copies of all emails held under one of our
users' accounts as part of a disclosure process under the DPA.
>From what I have read, I would not consider that private emails constitute
'personal data', and I do not therefore believe we have a duty to disclose
them. I would welcome views on this!
The email in question is held on a Novell Groupwise Account, and is, I'm
told, stored in some kind of binary format anyway. This, of course, may
present problems under the RIP Act in future.
Kindest regards,
Thomas.
____________________________________________________________________________
Thomas Rochford | Phone: +44 (1223) 363271 (Cambridge)
Director of C & IT Services | +44 (1245) 493131 (Chelmsford)
Anglia Polytechnic University | Fax: +44 (1223) 316870 (Cambridge)
East Road | +44 (1245) 490835 (Chelmsford)
Cambridge CB1 1PT | EMail: [log in to unmask]
The University is an Exempt Charity
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