Dear All
Have just been reading through this thread about the difficulties of
identifying relevant emails for an SAR in a large organisation.
Doesn't this issue just boil down to a balance of risk? With the best
will in the world large organisations are not going to be able to keep
track of all the email data staff store on their hard drives or cds and
floppy disks, nor guarantee to be able to find relevant data stored this
way for every SAR. In any case email data cannot really be classed the
same as data on other media given the legal privacy rights now attaching
to individual's email boxes. I agree with the contributor who felt that
the general trawl could be considered disproportionate effort in terms of
the Act.
However I don't think we should concern ourselves too much about this area
unless a Data Subject evidently knows about the existence of relevant email
data and is indicating the location of emails in which they are interested
or are challenging the use of email for transmission of particular data.
Surely most of the important stuff sent this way is also stored elsewhere
and can be obtained via a different route.
My feeling is that an organisation must do what is practicable to keep its
treatment of email data reasonably on a par with other data in terms of
raising staff awareness about DP issues surrounding email data and their
individual responsibilities in relation to the law. If we are expected to
do more I would like to see someone come up with a realistic way in which
we can meet the conflicting demands of DPA section 7 and the relevant bits
of HRA (or whichever piece of legislation it is covering privacy -
apologies for ignorance)
Thank god its friday
Colette Healiss
St Helens
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