Since this issue has raised its head again, here is what the ICO said to
me when I asked them to give the justification for their guidance about
"twice deleted" items.
========================================================================
The guideline provided in FOI Awareness Guidance 8 is intended to
provide practical and helpful advice to public authorities. It bears in
mind the difficulties of retrieving information located in back-up
severs and the intention for it not to be accessed again (as it has been
'deleted'). Alternatively, where information in these servers
'backs-up' information held elsewhere, the information requested would
still be expected to be supplied to the applicant, but from the other
source, where it is more readily retrievable.
It may be the case that legal guidance can challenge this line, as it
does not necessarily have legal grounds. Furthermore, we accept that in
extreme circumstances it may be reasonable to expect a public authority
to disclose information located in such a server. But in normal
circumstances, if the public authority is satisfied that they have
deleted information using the criteria used in the guidance, or that the
same information is located elsewhere, we would accept this as a
justification for not supplying the information located in the back-up
server.
========================================================================
=
Personally this does not carry the "ring of confidence" which would make
me keen to rely on it very widely.
Regards
Jim
----------------------------------------------
Jim Whitaker
Head of Information Management and Internal Communications
British Educational Communications and Technology agency
Millburn Hill Road
Science Park Telephone 024 7679 7452
Coventry 024 7641 6994 (Ext 3341)
CV4 7JJ Fax 024 7684 7071
======================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Trent [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 20 January 2005 14:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] Back-up
I love it. So, if I go to the waste dump and open the council bin liner
and find the "twice deleted records" and send them to the gutter press,
under FOI the council no longer holds them and is not responsible. I am
SO glad I handle data protection and not FOI.
The backup advice appears to agree with my argument about the true
nature of backups, which is that, unless they are designed to be a "live
backup", then their existence is not a cue to trawl through them. This
is very different legislation, though
Those of you who can point their email clients at their backups and see
the email may be mistaking an "archive" for a "backup". The former is a
place to keep old stuff that you may wish to access. The latter is
intended to handle systems failure
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Leesons Jackie
Sent: 20 January 2005 14:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] Back-up
The IC's Awareness Guidance No.8 Records Management FAQs, page 5, item 3
gives a view on the status of information held on back-up servers for
the purposes of FOI. Perhaps the analogy at the end of the answer could
be applied to DP?
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/cms/DocumentUploads/AG%208%20R
ec%2
0Man%20FAQl.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jackie Leesons
Information Manager
Peterborough City Council
Tel: [01733] 452295
>
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