Dear All
Thanks very much for everyone's helpful comments. The general consensus seems to be that we shouldn't be giving this access without the students' consent and as I'm not comfortable that the schedule 2 condition works, I'll go back to the lecturer and refuse access.
I'm grateful for the responses - it helps to know others have the same opinion when I know I'm about to be told that the DPA is pure bureaucracy and gets in the way of others trying to do their job - again! TGIF!
Samantha
PS My colleagues laughed when I told them we had to complete our dissertations on typewriters with carbon paper and a bottle of Tippex. Most asked what carbon paper was. The youth of today!
Samantha Hill
Complaints & Information Disclosure Officer
University House
Tel: 02392 843642
>>> "Carter, Antoinette (MCS)" <[log in to unmask]> 02/03/2007 12:41 >>>
I agree with you that the Schedule 2 condition is not clear. I think in
any event you would be well-advised to tell the lecturer to speak to his
students first before resorting to this type of action. It strikes me
that unless it is a computing course, the students are not under any
obligation to complete a certain number of hours at their PCs, so
tracking their log-in periods is inappropriate. There was a time (when
I was young!) when you could complete a course without the aid of a
computer at all!
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Samantha Hill
Sent: 02 March 2007 11:56
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] Access to computer log-in details
Dear All
I would appreciate your comments on a question that has arisen here.
A lecturer has requested the log-in records for students to a particular
computing system as he believes there will be a correlation between
recent poor exam results and the amount of times the students have
accessed this computer system. In providing the log-in records we would
be disclosing the personal data of the students as I think the purpose
is to be able to say Student A accessed the system once for 5 minutes
and got 10% whereas Student B accessed the system 10 times for an hour
each time and got 70%.
As far as I can find out we have not told the students that we will be
doing this, nor that the findings will be discussed with the external
examiner who is bound to question the low marks, so I have problems with
disclosing the student's personal data - unless the sixth condition of
Schedule 2, that the processing is necessary for the purposes of
legitimate interests of the data controller, can be used.
I would be grateful for comments on whether this processing would be
considered a legitimate purpose and/ or others experience of a similar
situation.
Thanks very much
Samantha Hill
University of Portsmouth
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