Can I be fired for breaching data protection?

jimbo747

Our company sends out emails regularly, the odd mistake can and does happen especially if done manually via outlook for example and you're emailing johnsmith@gov.uk instead of john.smith.gov.uk. Last week a mail campaign went out to 200k people instead of the 1000 intended all because of one wrong filter in our email tool. If I had to sack a member of staff every time they made a mistake I'd have no one left. Would the ICO fine us for that? Not a chance.

AstroTurtle

jimbo747 wrote: »

Our company sends out emails regularly, the odd mistake can and does happen especially if done manually via outlook for example and you're emailing johnsmith@gov.uk instead of john.smith.gov.uk. Last week a mail campaign went out to 200k people instead of the 1000 intended all because of one wrong filter in our email tool. If I had to sack a member of staff every time they made a mistake I'd have no one left. Would the ICO fine us for that? Not a chance.

Depends what was on the email.

You could be fined for spam emails to people who didn't consent to those emails which falls under PECR regulations.

The ICO will fine for reckless actions and 199,000 emails incorrectly sent falls into that category if it contains or could of breached personal data.

https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/

Take a look at their enforcement page on the ICO website. They fine a lot of people on a regular basis.

johnsmith20002

Hoping the posters in here may pick this up, despite being old, for some advice. I have a friend who recorded a performance review conversation at work on their work mobile, and got found out. The person doing the review with them reported it to HR rather than simply asking my friend to delete it. The employee who's review it was has not found out about it.

My friend has now been placed under investigation and their phone was confiscated for analysis. They have been told the recording has been found and confirmation of a breach of GDPR.

They have been given the option of going to a misconduct hearing and presenting their case, or walking away with pay in lieu of notice.

My friend believes they have strong mitigating circumstances. They were under documented high stress at the time, and were not the Line manager of the employee in question. In effect they were coerced into doing this employees review despite not being their manager, because no one else wanted to do it. The employee has a reputation for being difficult and was likely to challenge their review.

My friend did not think clearly and made a stupid mistake, but the 'personal information' collected has remained on the phone and not been disclosed to anyone else, plus the employee is still not aware.

Anyone have any ideas how likely it is they would get off with a written warning vs being fired for gross misconduct? They have been there for a long time i.e. greater than 5 years.

74jax

johnsmith20002 wrote: »

Hoping the posters in here may pick this up, despite being old, for some advice. I have a friend who recorded a performance review conversation at work on their work mobile, and got found out. The person doing the review with them reported it to HR rather than simply asking my friend to delete it. The employee who's review it was has not found out about it.

My friend has now been placed under investigation and their phone was confiscated for analysis. They have been told the recording has been found and confirmation of a breach of GDPR.

They have been given the option of going to a misconduct hearing and presenting their case, or walking away with pay in lieu of notice.

My friend believes they have strong mitigating circumstances. They were under documented high stress at the time, and were not the Line manager of the employee in question. In effect they were coerced into doing this employees review despite not being their manager, because no one else wanted to do it. The employee has a reputation for being difficult and was likely to challenge their review.

My friend did not think clearly and made a stupid mistake, but the 'personal information' collected has remained on the phone and not been disclosed to anyone else, plus the employee is still not aware.

Anyone have any ideas how likely it is they would get off with a written warning vs being fired for gross misconduct? They have been there for a long time i.e. greater than 5 years.

If you start your own post people will reply to your questions.

Energize

johnsmith20002 wrote: »

Hoping the posters in here may pick this up, despite being old, for some advice. I have a friend who recorded a performance review conversation at work on their work mobile, and got found out. The person doing the review with them reported it to HR rather than simply asking my friend to delete it. The employee who's review it was has not found out about it.

My friend has now been placed under investigation and their phone was confiscated for analysis. They have been told the recording has been found and confirmation of a breach of GDPR.

They have been given the option of going to a misconduct hearing and presenting their case, or walking away with pay in lieu of notice.

My friend believes they have strong mitigating circumstances. They were under documented high stress at the time, and were not the Line manager of the employee in question. In effect they were coerced into doing this employees review despite not being their manager, because no one else wanted to do it. The employee has a reputation for being difficult and was likely to challenge their review.

My friend did not think clearly and made a stupid mistake, but the 'personal information' collected has remained on the phone and not been disclosed to anyone else, plus the employee is still not aware.

Anyone have any ideas how likely it is they would get off with a written warning vs being fired for gross misconduct? They have been there for a long time i.e. greater than 5 years.

From my understanding this would be exempt from the data protection principles because the information is only personal to the person recording it.

Savvy_Sue

johnsmith20002 wrote: »

Anyone have any ideas how likely it is they would get off with a written warning vs being fired for gross misconduct? They have been there for a long time i.e. greater than 5 years.

If they are in a union, they should immediately ask their union for support.

Manxman_in_exile

Energize wrote: »

From my understanding this would be exempt from the data protection principles because the information is only personal to the person recording it.

Er.... isn't it personal to the person who is the subject of the review, not the person conducting the review, who is the one recording it?


Agree this needs to be a new thread.