People working with personal data have this week been reminded
and warned by the Information Commissioner's Office (the ICO)
that they must obey strict data protection laws after a charity
worker was successfully prosecuted for sending personal data to his
private email account.
The defendant (who was employed by The Rochdale Connections
Trust) sent 11 emails from his work email account in February 2017,
which contained the sensitive personal data of 183 people. The
personal data included full names, dates of birth, telephone
numbers and medical information. Further investigation showed that
he had sent a similar database to his personal account in June
2016.
The employee was ordered to pay a fine of £1,860.25 after
pleading guilty at Preston Crown Court to unlawfully obtaining
personal data under section 55 of the Data Protection Act. Perhaps
more significantly for the employee, he also left court with a
criminal record.
