Matthew,
Don't forget you must protect the "whistle blower" in all circumstances.
However, you must look at each case individually. A supervisor who lays a
complaint about one of their staff cannot be considered a "whistle blower"
as the complaint will be part of the normal management process. On the
other hand, if 2,3, or 26 female staff have complained of actual physical
harassment, you will take the opposite view.
And yes, you will have to remove the names or some how render them
unreadable before disclosure. Cutting them out is the only sensible
option.
RNC
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: The Act and Email
Author: [log in to unmask] at Internet
Date: 25/08/00 10:40
I find it very difficult to comprehend how you can exclude any mentions of
other individual B in an email when a request for disclosure is received
from individual A. Invariably, the request comes in as a result of a
disciplinary case, when individual A is seeking, for example, evidence of
what individual B has said about them.
What do you do ? Blank out individual B's name ? Exclude all emails
with reference to individual B ? Seek permission, from individual B when
they would clearly not be willing to give consent ?
Help !
[log in to unmask] (Roger Cook)@mailbase.ac.uk on 25/08/2000 10:12:46
Please respond to [log in to unmask] (Roger Cook)
Sent by: [log in to unmask]
To: "DPA-List" <[log in to unmask]>, "Thomas Rochford"
<[log in to unmask]>
cc: (bcc: Matthew Nunn/Registry/Southampton Institute)
Subject: Re: The Act and Email
It's certainly debatable whether there can be "private" email on a
corporate email system. Certainly in Leeds - where private email is
prohibited - any and all email is owned by the Council. Staff are made
aware of this in the relevant Code of Practice. So any discovery process
will reveal all.
The danger in attempting to separate private and public email is that an
individual may privacy to prevent access to email that contains material
that is racially or sexually abusive or discriminatory against another
member of staff or indeed a member of the public. Staff may hold personal
opinions but they must not express them on the corporate email system.
(On a related topic, I've come across an opinion that under the new RIPA
legislation [now being referred to as the "grim RIPA"] all organisations
will need to notify all their staff with email facilities that it might be
intercepted and read by the security services!)
On a more practical level, where email is concerned, the material is
certain to contain personal data relating to others. You would need to
seek their individual permission to disclose or take the scissors to any
reference in the email.
Bradford Council had an incident some months ago where a request for
subject access for email was received. If my memory serves me correctly,
over 600 pages of email were printed in this case.
Roger Cook
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: The Act and Email
Author: "Thomas Rochford" <[log in to unmask]> at Internet
Date: 25/08/00 09:44
Dear Colleagues,
I am being asked to provide copies of all emails held under one of our
users' accounts as part of a disclosure process under the DPA.
>From what I have read, I would not consider that private emails constitute
'personal data', and I do not therefore believe we have a duty to disclose
them. I would welcome views on this!
The email in question is held on a Novell Groupwise Account, and is, I'm
told, stored in some kind of binary format anyway. This, of course, may
present problems under the RIP Act in future.
Kindest regards,
Thomas.
____________________________________________________________________________
Thomas Rochford | Phone: +44 (1223) 363271 (Cambridge)
Director of C & IT Services | +44 (1245) 493131 (Chelmsford)
Anglia Polytechnic University | Fax: +44 (1223) 316870 (Cambridge)
East Road | +44 (1245) 490835 (Chelmsford)
Cambridge CB1 1PT | EMail: [log in to unmask]
The University is an Exempt Charity
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