Dear All,
I am having a discussion with a legal friend and I was wondering how other organisations handled this issue. Email is wonderful but it contains possible pitfalls regarding data protection, privacy, and possible subject access requests. In particular, the question around names in the subject line.
I am of the view that personal names should be used rarely, if ever, in the subject line of an email. My view is that this would make them the subject of the email so the whole email would have to be considered for disclosure under an SAR.
Second, it leads to bad practice because someone can then see, if they are viewing the screen, that there are emails about someone. For example, if HR officers are emailing someone's name then someone passing can see they are discussing that person.
Third, it can lead to accidental breaches because the email is about a person just forwarding the email to the wrong person could breach their privacy in a way that an email that only mentions them in the body might not be considered.
The contrary view from my legal friend was that his emails were covered by legal professional privilege. I am not convinced as not everything he writes is for legal advice. However, the main issue is the use of the name.
Second, he was not convinced that personal information was being disclosed by the name as a person's name could be on a file and that did not make the whole file about them, although you had to go through the file to find out what was NOT them to make sure.
Third, disclosing the name in the subject line or in the body of the text did not matter as both were breaches so the difference was moot. They were not convinced by the argument that inadvertent breaches,ie someone reading over the shoulder could be an issue.
I cannot find any explicit guidance or any decision notices to support my position. How do you handle these type of email issues in your organisation?
Any advice or assistance would be appreciate.
Thanks
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cotterill, Steve
Sent: 14 January 2011 09:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Release of personal data re senior officers salaries
Thanks to all who responded.
I have advised
1) I prefer not to release names against salary bands unless legally required to do so.
2) If we did release names against salary bands for senior officers, the ICO are very unlikely to take any sort of action because senior officer names, job titles and salaries are likely to be in the public domain anyway.
Steve
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Cotterill
Procurement & Technical Officer x3296
Broxtowe Borough Council
-----Original Message-----
From: Cotterill, Steve
Sent: 13 January 2011 10:06
To: 'Lynn Wyeth'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: [data-protection] Release of personal data
Thanks for your response.
I was more thinking along the lines of just because two items may be in the public domain, is it right from a DPA perspective to decide to link them together and publish them? ie,
1) Job titles and salaries for senior officers £50k - £150K are to be published by law.
2) Names of the Senior Officers are likely to be released to an FOI request.
Link these together and you are able publish the name and salary detail. This seems to be the ICO guidance in response to the 'senior salary transparency guidance'. Are there any issues you would look at from a data protection perspective apart fair processing notice etc?
Cheers
Steve
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stephen Cotterill
Procurement & Technical Officer x3296
Broxtowe Borough Council
Resources Directorate
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