As with all DPA problems, put yourself in the position of the data subject.
Have you fallen out with your family? Have you told your parents that the
money they gave you was spent as it should have been? Do you want them to pay
the bill for you? Would you be happy for the debts to be paid? Would you
continue your studies after the debt is paid? (Sorry that's a red herring, the Uni
doesn't know how to contact you to tell you that you can return.) If your
family did pay the bill, and bearing in mind the above information, how would you
ever know and therefore how could you possibly complain? No complaint, no
investigation.
My own advice? Look at the cases where the IC has taken action against
councils whose bailiffs told parents how much their offspring owed, and the
building society case where a private tenant was told that the mortgage holder was in
arrears, then see how you can avoid the problems they had.
Ian B
PS If you detect a small amount of sarcasm in this response, please forgive
me, I turned 50 yesterday and I'm feeling a little low.
------
In a message dated 12/10/05 08:49:53 GMT Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> We have an ex-student who owes a considerable amount of money to the
> University. The family of the student has been in touch and offered to pay
> the debt. Would it be acceptable under Data Protection to inform the
> family of how much is owed and therefore recover the debt? It has been
> suggested that rather than release the exact amount we could say that £X
> would cover it.
>
> It would seem to me that this is in the University's legitimate interests
> and possibly in the interests of the student who would then be able to
> return to the University and complete their course. However, the student is
> not in contact with their family and may justifiably not want them involved.
>
> Unfortunately we have no way of contacting the student to discuss this
> issue.
>
> Does anyone have any ideas on how we can deal with this?
-------
Ian Buckland
Keep I.T. Legal Ltd
(Reg: 3822335)
Please Note: The information given above does not replace or negate the need
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