We are in a similar situation. An ex-employee has seperated from her husband in what is currently an acrimonious dispute. She has left a computer that contains sensitive information regarding clients. We are informed of this by the husband and we write back to him to ask for the return of the data. He is seeking to discredit his estranged wife and will not return or delete the data and further has threatened to release the information to the press. He is effectively holding the data to ransom but there is very little recourse we have unless he does go ahead and pass this onto the press, in which case he will meet the criteria of section 55, i.e. knowingly disclosing without our consent as DC.
(NB. There is a broader issue around the ex-employee's conduct whilst employed, not least breaching our information security policies, but those are unrelated to the current topic...)
It's also another debate but I think there is also a fundamental issue about whether data is property. My opinion is that if the data can "belong" to someone (whether the owner is data subject or data controller), it has a value, in particular commercial/monetarty value, and it is a fundamental asset to an organisation, I think that data must be considered as property. I also don't have enough knowldge around intellectual property law which I assumes could apply (?) but of course my opinion also holds no weight in legal terms so I'll have to wait until we get some more case law on this, which I am sure will happen as the importance of information as currency in an electronic/virtual world will only grow.
Catherine Lantsbery
Information Governance Manager
Information Governance Unit - Staffordshire County Council
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