Whose Data Is It Anyway? Irish Courts Decide Whether Personal Data Held On A Work Phone Belongs To You Or Your Employer

If you've ever used your work phone to check your personal email, send a message to friends or family or look up something unrelated to your job, you're not alone. But what happens when that device becomes part of an internal dispute at work? Who actually owns the data on a work phone – the employee or the employer?

The recent Irish case of McShane v Data Protection Commission and Health Service Executive [2025] IEHC 191 offers an answer: it is typically the employer.

A phone, a cyber-attack and a complaint

Eamon McShane, a fire prevention officer employed by the Health Service Executive ("HSE"), was issued with a work phone as part of his role. In May 2021, he found himself at the centre of a legal battle following a cyber-attack on the HSE's computer system. He claimed that as a result of the breach, his personal email accounts and a cryptocurrency account with €1,400 in value were hacked.