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Data Protection And Working From Home
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Does anyone here wonder how safe their data is due to the working from home culture?
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I am absolutely certain there are thousands of people working from home with inadequate data protection procedures.
Many people were issued a laptop by their employer back in March and given a VPN password in a real hurry. The government told us to work fom home and they did the best they could. There was no time for the employers who were new to home working to appropriate create policies and procedures, and to date, a huge number of employees are still working from their sofas, bedrooms or shared accommodation.
If I had to work from home I would not be able to create a private space to do so, let alone go to the study!
Many people were issued a laptop by their employer back in March and given a VPN password in a real hurry. The government told us to work fom home and they did the best they could. There was no time for the employers who were new to home working to appropriate create policies and procedures, and to date, a huge number of employees are still working from their sofas, bedrooms or shared accommodation.
If I had to work from home I would not be able to create a private space to do so, let alone go to the study!
//For sending someone's ni number and pension details to the wrong address?? Prison?//
//Yes. We have to complete a data protection exam every year at work and we have this stuff drilled into us.
Then I suggest you correct those advising or teaching you that they are wrong.
//Family member walks past the open screen and hey presto - you have breached the data protection act. //
I think not. Apart from anything else it depends very much on what is displayed. But assuming it was “personal data”, if that was the case virtually every person who walked past a screen displaying personal data would be guilty of breaking the GDPRs. In a large office not all employees have the same rights of access to data. Somebody may be passing your screen who did not have the right access permissions and by your contention the person responsible for that screen would be guilty of a breach. Clearly nonsense.
The Data Protection Act and the EU’s GDPR are probably among the most abused, misused and misquoted articles of legislation around. They place responsibilities on “data controllers” to ensure personal data is securely stored and processed, used only for the purposes for which it was provided and that it is not kept for longer than necessary.
That said, no proper arrangements have been made for many people who have been working for six months and adequate data protection facilities are almost certainly lacking in many places. But so are proper Display Screen Equipment compliance and many H&S aspects. So if employers are to continue to allow their staff to work with a laptop propped up against the toaster in the kitchen or against a pillow on their bed that they got a grip on their responsibilities.
//Yes. We have to complete a data protection exam every year at work and we have this stuff drilled into us.
Then I suggest you correct those advising or teaching you that they are wrong.
//Family member walks past the open screen and hey presto - you have breached the data protection act. //
I think not. Apart from anything else it depends very much on what is displayed. But assuming it was “personal data”, if that was the case virtually every person who walked past a screen displaying personal data would be guilty of breaking the GDPRs. In a large office not all employees have the same rights of access to data. Somebody may be passing your screen who did not have the right access permissions and by your contention the person responsible for that screen would be guilty of a breach. Clearly nonsense.
The Data Protection Act and the EU’s GDPR are probably among the most abused, misused and misquoted articles of legislation around. They place responsibilities on “data controllers” to ensure personal data is securely stored and processed, used only for the purposes for which it was provided and that it is not kept for longer than necessary.
That said, no proper arrangements have been made for many people who have been working for six months and adequate data protection facilities are almost certainly lacking in many places. But so are proper Display Screen Equipment compliance and many H&S aspects. So if employers are to continue to allow their staff to work with a laptop propped up against the toaster in the kitchen or against a pillow on their bed that they got a grip on their responsibilities.
