On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Julian Curmi wrote:
> Tony,
>
> It all depends on the naming convention policy that the organisation has
> adopted - some adopt a full identifiable name while others are less
> formal.
Of course it does, and I don't think you can give a blanket answer to the
question: "is an email address personal data?".
For instance, my email address probably is, because it is very unlikely
that there are others with the same name in my organisation, given an an
email address that is very verbose about my names. On the other hand,
there could be two Joe Bloggs here, one might be joe.bloggs@strath and the
other might be joe.bloggs.100@strath (ugly, but that does happen --
assuming no middle initials, but see below). Knowing the department, you
might be able to identify from staff lists which is which, and hence the
email address may become personal data. But on its own, the email address
isn't sufficient, in this case, so I would contend it isn't personal data
-- until you have more information that narrows it down.
At a previous employment, we had someone with the email localpart
m.morris
Someone later joined my team, who had no middle initial. She ended up
having to be
m.x.morris
to make the distinction (restrictive rules on format of email names). So
in this case, the email address is downright misleading, and knowing you
wanted Mary Morris, but not if she has a middle name, it could be either
of them. Or neither.
Jethro.
> Tony Bowden <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent by: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
> <[log in to unmask]>
> 08/06/2004 14:47
> Please respond to Tony Bowden
>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> cc:
> Subject: Re: [data-protection] Email address is personal data?
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 08, 2004 at 05:25:59AM -0700, Lillina Taranto wrote:
> > > > "[log in to unmask]" is sufficient to identify me
> whereas
> > > > "enquiries@.." is not.
> > > What if multiple people in the same company have the
> > > same name?
> > They will not have the same email address - it would
> > be extremely unpractical otherwise!
>
> Yes, but then the email address isn't suffient to identify them.
>
> This is particularly relevant in companies where some people get forename
> email addresses ([log in to unmask]).
>
> Tony
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Jethro R Binks
Computing Officer, IT Services
University Of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
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