** Reply to note from Roland Perry <[log in to unmask]> Fri, 9 Feb 2001 21:03:49 +0000
> In article <sa83c31e.000@GWIATH>, Paula Leon
> <[log in to unmask]> writes
> >I cannot see where consent would be required, as the post belongs to the
> >organisation anyway, because it should relate to business.
> >
> >What would happen if some staff did not give consent, what would happen to the
> >post, if they were sick etc, may this well hinder the business itself.
Are we confusing paper mail, with electronic mail or the telephone.
I am not sure employees (many? any?) would want to receive _confidential_
mail at their employer's addressis. For example, divorce papers, building
society bills, solicitors correspondence, correspondence from the other party
in an extra marital affair and so on. Yes the odd real private letter may
come in, so what? ;-) (No respect for the law?)
In our case (give or take 4k employees) we don't open other people's
mail. Secretaries with their boss permission open their mail and put it in
nice, tidy piles ready for the boss and then the bin (sorry, our recycler is
gone bust ... burned out).
I have no intention of making this a DP issue as it is not, so I would not
seek consent, equally we would not have a policy saying all mail shall be
opened. Different offices will have different arrangements, for example mail
going to our finance office (depending to whom it is addressed) is opened at
the presence of two people.
I think we are confusing the privacy expected for the use of telephones and
to a lesser extent email with that of ordinary mail. From an employee's
perspective the use of a telephone for private matters during work hours may
be unavoidable (not so sure now with the increasing numbers of mobile
phones). If the employer permits the phones to be used for private matters
then privacy ought to be expected too. Ditto for email, although it is more
arguable if it is as essential as an ordinary telephone.
What if :-) the DPO is off work. What if :-) the DPO does not have a
secretary. What if :-) a subject access request comes in.
Should someone else open it or not?
(Please don't try to get me on this on the basis of a job title or a person
being on the address. Nor does private and confidential is good enough,
because a lot of our internal mail usually goes around saying Private and
Confidential, it is addressed to a person, and what a load of rubbish it
normally is).
Charles
==============================================
Charles Christacopoulos, Secretary's Office, University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Tel: +44+(0)1382-344891. Fax: +44+(0)1382-201604.
http://somis.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
Scottish Search Maestro http://somis2.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
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