Let us ignore the law:
Is what you want to do a sound, sensible and common sense business practice,
and one the person emailing the ex employee would expect to take place?
I think the answer to that is a resounding "YES". This means that, even
were it to be unlawful the complaint level would be zero.
Adding in the law says to me "The person they are emailing was a
representative of the company, rather than an individual. The law refers to
the handling of data by companies (well, data controllers, but you know what
I mean). The company is handling the inbound email competently and stating
what it is doing. Thus there is no problem."
The only issue you will get is if the ex employee has used their corporate
email address to subscribe to "Naughty Nookie monthly" and you discover this
(frankly they should have been more careful, but they can always say it was
spam), or of they were running some sort of "unusual and inappropriate
message scheme" from their corporate email address. And in that case there
will be a number of red faced people around.
The message here is to ensure that the people to whom the email is forwarded
are made firmly aware of their responsibilities over any unusual material
they may receive, and additionally, I suppose, would not feel (eg) sexually
harassed by receiving "Naughty Nookie" by email directed to them by actions
of their employer.
Doesn't it get complex when you lift the lid?
By the way, when in doubt about something *always* use the most extreme
sexual example you can think of. While it is "unreasonable" in so many ways
it also shows where there is potential for offence and data disaster
Tim Trent - Consultant
Direct: +44(0)1344 392644 Mobile:+44(0)7710 126618
email: [log in to unmask]
Marketing Improvement Limited, Abbey House, Grenville Place, Bracknell,
United Kingdom, RG12 1BP
http://www.marketingimprovement.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Geoff Scott
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 3:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Incoming emails and staff leaving
Hope you guys can offer some advice with a little problem I have.
Recently 2 members of staff left our business.
They handled external emailed enquiries about some of our products.
During their notice period they emailed as many of their contacts as
possible informing them that they were leaving but some will probably be
missed.
We are now receiving emails into their email box addresses.
We would like to forward these emails onto another member of staff to handle
and activate an auto-response email informing the sender that we've
forwarded on their email for actioning. The auto-response will contain the
new email address in the message as well as a statement to say something
along the lines off 'if you want us to remove their email (with their
address) from our systems just contact us on...) whereupon we can delete the
email.
Eventually we'll switch this email off maybe in 3 months.
The question is, can we forward on an email (with someone's email address in
it) without their permission even though it is a business-related email?
Regards,
Geoff Scott
Project Manager
SCHIN Ltd
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