Data protection and my employer

[petethemanc]

I have an ongoing tribunal this month with my previous employer, but a question i have is this. I asked if i could come to the office to collect some paperwork that was important to me, they replied that i could get access for this. Now i work away and usually have limited acces to emails, my previous employer then went through my laptop bag and scanned (as directors they would not have done this) my personal medical paperwork (and made comments about this that were derogatory and in depth so they have obviously read them) and my personal financial paperwork stating that i had numerous debt letters. Now they also copied in my wife (she did not work for them or had ever met them and had not given them her email and neither had i) and my union rep and their legal team, they suggest that i was hiding this information from my fie (which i most definitely was not, this was to cause problems as they never included her in any emials prior or post). Surely this must be a data protection breach as i have given them no permission to do this and my wife. Please can someone advise.

[king12345]

Yes, clear case of breach of dpa.

Contact ico immediately and start separate proceedings for this breach.

Make it look like you didn't want your wife to know and your relationship has suffered as a result.

In other words make a fuss.

[sangie5952]

I have an ongoing tribunal this month with my previous employer, but a question i have is this. I asked if i could come to the office to collect some paperwork that was important to me, they replied that i could get access for this. Now i work away and usually have limited acces to emails, my previous employer then went through my laptop bag and scanned (as directors they would not have done this) my personal medical paperwork (and made comments about this that were derogatory and in depth so they have obviously read them) and my personal financial paperwork stating that i had numerous debt letters. Now they also copied in my wife (she did not work for them or had ever met them and had not given them her email and neither had i) and my union rep and their legal team, they suggest that i was hiding this information from my fie (which i most definitely was not, this was to cause problems as they never included her in any emials prior or post). Surely this must be a data protection breach as i have given them no permission to do this and my wife. Please can someone advise.

 

I am very confused. Your former employer went through a lap top bag that belonged to you, that was not in your possession, and was in your former workplace? What was all this information doing left in your former workplace?

 

I am not clear that this is, in fact, a breach of the DPA. This is not information that they held about you. It isn't information that you gave to them as a result of an employment or other relationship between you. It is information that appears to have been carelessly left by you in your former workplace. It's a nasty tactic, I agree, but I am failing to see what part of the DPA, or any other law, they may have broken. If this information was your own personal information and "in your possession" then it would seem that the responsibility for securing it's confidentiality was yours.

[Emmzzi]

unless it impacts the subject matter of your ET, don't get distracted by it just now.

[Sidewinder]

Yes - undoubtedly a breach of your sensitive personal information

 

Whoops - meant to add that the data in itself was not within the scope of the DPA, but the employer in copying and then disclosing the data to a third party without authority has brought the information within the principles of the DPA and has breached those principles

[petethemanc]

I am very confused. Your former employer went through a lap top bag that belonged to you, that was not in your possession, and was in your former workplace? What was all this information doing left in your former workplace?

 

I am not clear that this is, in fact, a breach of the DPA. This is not information that they held about you. It isn't information that you gave to them as a result of an employment or other relationship between you. It is information that appears to have been carelessly left by you in your former workplace. It's a nasty tactic, I agree, but I am failing to see what part of the DPA, or any other law, they may have broken. If this information was your own personal information and "in your possession" then it would seem that the responsibility for securing it's confidentiality was yours.

 

The laptop was the business laptop, it was in my own personal laptop bag, i returned to work that day and was called out into the car park and dissmissed there. I could not at that time go back into the office as they would not allow it, the information in the bag was my own personal information in my bag. At the time i was too busy wondering what was to happen to me as we had paid fully for a holiday and i now had no job and no money. I had kept the information secure as it was with me. I can not keep it secure if i am not allowed back into their office.

[king12345]

Dismissed in a car park?!?!

What next???

 

Just out of curiosity, what did they claim you did to be dismissed?

You can say "none of your business", I won't mind.

[sangie5952]

Yes - undoubtedly a breach of your sensitive personal information

 

Whoops - meant to add that the data in itself was not within the scope of the DPA, but the employer in copying and then disclosing the data to a third party without authority has brought the information within the principles of the DPA and has breached those principles

 

You would have to put this to proof. What evidence is there that this information was not chipped by and provided to the employers by a third party? The bag was left there. Anyone could have gone though it and copied those documents. Neither the employer, nor the data controller, are responsible for the actions of an anonymous third party, even if it is likely to be an employee, who went through the bag of a former employee. What proof is there that my version isn't the truth?

 

I agree with Emmzzi. This is a distraction. A breach of the DPA, even if proven, is not worth anything. Concentrate on whether toy have a case or not on the dismissal.

[donarebun]

I have an ongoing tribunal this month with my previous employer, but a question i have is this. I asked if i could come to the office to collect some paperwork that was important to me, they replied that i could get access for this. Now i work away and usually have limited acces to emails, my previous employer then went through my laptop bag and scanned (as directors they would not have done this) my personal medical paperwork (and made comments about this that were derogatory and in depth so they have obviously read them) and my personal financial paperwork stating that i had numerous debt letters. Now they also copied in my wife (she did not work for them or had ever met them and had not given them her email and neither had i) and my union rep and their legal team, they suggest that i was hiding this information from my fie (which i most definitely was not, this was to cause problems as they never included her in any emials prior or post). Surely this must be a data protection breach as i have given them no permission to do this and my wife. Please can someone advise.

 

 

It could be a distraction.

 

I would take it up though but I don't know how much you can take on at the same time.

 

So ONLY take this up if you can cope (most people can't)

 

Also, you could get your wife to write them a short email asking them how they got her email (her personal data).

 

Why did they share that information with her?

 

Was the intent to harrass her?

[ericsbrother]

agree, it is just to pressure you into dropping the claim. Go after them for the breach of the DPA etc aftre all of this is done and dusted. Win this and their lawyers wont be happy to be doing another claim for them where they have behaved badly.