Sorry to bring up Durant again.
I think that I have understood that Durant allows a data contoller to take
a very narrow definition of relevant paper filing systems (leaving aside
the FOI affected public authorities for the minute). But does Durant stop
a Data Contoller from applying a broader definition if they so wish. In
other words, just because Durant allows the pusillanimous organisation the
opportunity to discount folders with names on (but sinfully arranged in
chronological order - what's that all about?), does the Durant ruling mean
that a sturdier organisation is forbidden to go that gruelling extra mile,
and, for example, fish out an individuals personnel file from the
alphabetically arranged sequence of names in response to that individual's
request for access.
As it happens, I work for a public authority so am covered by FOISA and its
wider definition of relevant filing system anyway. Ironically, we do hold
information which I would like to apply a narrower definition to, but FOISA
means we cant. We hold upwards of 50 million pages of manuscripts in our
library collection, many of which contain personal data. Despite the best
efforts of our staff to catalogue these, my guess is that they would more
than classify as unstructured data not held in a relevant filing system.
But because of FOISA, they are covered by access legislation, and all of
the various problems this creates (such as the theoretical possibility that
we may have to spend an unlimited amount of time and resources searching
for the existance of a persons name in tens of thousands of paper
documents - remembering that the FOISA charging structure does not include
time spent establishing whether the information is held or not).
Is it me?
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