I think 'intended recipient' could be quite elastic. The intended recipient
for most of the emails that I get is actually "the person who's there to
answer my question" - it just so happens that for most of the time, that
person is me.
My email account is one of two that we encourage people to send FOI requests
to (the other is not a personalised one). There would surely be no RIPA
problem in opening any requests for information sent to me and thereby
intercepting them, because the intended recipient is the Council's
designated FOI & DP representative. If I'm not here, my colleagues here in
Legal fill in as required, so they become the intended recipient by default.
I think the same goes for a lot of the requests that I get for advice or
assistance from colleagues - they ask me because I'm the post-holder, the
Legal department's representative.
To read the majority of emails, therefore, would surely not be a breach of
RIPA. Needless to say, I expect that my employer will read my emails in my
absence because I make sure someone has agreed to do it before I leave.
Tim Turner
Data Protection / FOI Officer
Legal and Property Services
Wigan Council
Tel: 01942 488354 (ext 8354)
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Roland Perry
Sent: Fri 20 July 2007 10:33
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] private email accounts
In message <[log in to unmask]>, at
10:08:05 on Fri, 20 Jul 2007, Alan Stead <[log in to unmask]>
writes
[Things I disagree with, but have already posted my views]
>On another However, care should also be taken with RIPA s1 which
>prohibits the interception of communications which does included
>unopened emails if addressed to an individual without consent e.g.
>[log in to unmask] but this is probably another string to
>discuss on another day.
The expression the Act uses is "intended recipient". That intention can
quite often be expressed within the email address (even to the extent of
including single-person-serviced role addresses such as chairman@), but it's
not unknown to send emails with "att: Michael Mouse" in the subject line (or
even the body) too. I agree that this complicates mechanical assessment as
to who I intended to email to be read by.
<friday> I have tried (and failed) on several occasions to engage the Home
Office is a meaningful dialogue on how "intended recipient" is defined in
several edge cases, such as where PAs routinely read their bosses emails, or
mailing lists.
Is the intended recipient of this email
a) <all the list subscribers, of which I don't have individual
knowledge>, or
b) <the JISC email server, which then sends a completely different (for
regulatory purposes) email to each of the subscribers>
This matters because (for example) if the email is regarded as delivered
once it hits the JISC server, then it probably gives the admins more legal
justification to read/moderate them, and to edit the subscriber list to
match *their* rather than *my* intentions regarding the individuals in
ultimate receipt.
--
Roland Perry
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