Davidwyatt on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 at 12:04 AM said:-
> 1: Is a persons signature personal data ? Pre Durrant based
> on the DP Acts definition I would have argued yes..
> 2: Post Durrant is it still personal data when collected and
> processed
Post Duerant - The purposes appear to apply to material relating to a living
individual where the definitions apply for the purpose provided. Personally
I do not consider that any clearer than pre-Durrant?
Where the definitions do not apply, I suppose the legal eagles on the group
could respond - possibly identifying fraud and forgery legal offences
covering the use of signatures for purposes they were not provided or
intended for, by the data subject - almost DP but more expensive, less
flexible and containing a geographically restrictive scope/rising cost
element in the protection provided, whilst at the same time facilitating a
greater degree of control over some developing technological features e.g.
digital signatures. I suppose in some ways prior to Durrant, DP had
provided a lower level, wider coverage, simpler and easier alternative to
those legal offences for the individual, rather than the organisation.
In broad privacy terms, a signature appears to be personal material used
widely by the data subject, so dependent on circumstances, much like a name,
may not be private at all.
In my experience providing free answers is not something which the legal
profession do very often. But then information, as in many areas, becomes a
commercial asset and providing simple answers suiting complex situations
necessarily requires certain assumptions to be met if misunderstanding is to
be avoided.
Ian W
> -----Original Message-----
> From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection
> issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of davidwyatt
> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:04 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Query - Signature as Personal data
>
>
> For observations / comment
>
> 1: Is a persons signature personal data ? Pre Durrant based
> on the DP Acts definition I would have argued yes..
>
> 2: Post Durrant is it still personal data when collected and
> processed in the following context?.
>
> Your employer asks you to provide it for the first time as a
> data item for a 'contacts schedule' held as a page within a
> contract they are entering into with a third party service supplier?
>
> As a consequence your personal signature will then be in the
> possession of both your employer (arguably for a staff admin
> use) and the third party service supplier (DPA purpose
> unclear). Your employer is likely to have had a copy when you
> were first employed on your application form and on many
> other documents subsequently e.g. paper memos. Leaving aside
> DPA an Employers strict duty of confidence on employment
> records would have appeared to give its use by the employer's
> employees some legal protection.
>
> Given Durrant ruling does DPA apply at all to your signature
> as a datum and if not does either party have any defined
> security obligation at law to protect it from misuse? If so
> what law? e.g Anyone with any obligation to protect a
> signature from fraudulent use other than the individual themselves.
>
> Views?
>
> David Wyatt
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at : -
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
|