ICO acts on student privacy breach
Slapped wrist for Manchester Uni
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Manchester University has been censured by the Information Commissioner's Office for publishing personal information about students.
The ICO said it had taken enforcement action against the university for a breach of the Data Protection Act after a member of staff emailed an attachment to 469 students which contained the personal records of 1,700 people.
The records, which included information on some students' disabilities, were published when a member of the university staff had unauthorised access to the information.
The university has now signed a formal undertaking outlining that it will process personal information in line with the Data Protection Act. It said that it will ensure all its staff have adequate training to prevent the inappropriate transfer of data and that it will take measures to safeguard personal data from accidental loss or destruction.
Mick Gorrill, assistant information commissioner at the ICO, said: "The Data Protection Act clearly states that organisations, including universities, must take appropriate measures to ensure that personal information is kept secure.
"This case reinforces the importance that only those authorised should have access to sensitive personal information such as a student's disabilities and other health details. Despite the absence of a justifiable reason, the staff member was able to access the information and send it to students and peers which could cause significant distress to individuals concerned.
"Under the Data Protection Act, organisations must ensure that their policies on the transfer, sharing and publication of personal information are adequate and that staff members are aware and understand those policies. Manchester University recognises the seriousness of this case and has agreed to take immediate remedial action."
This article was originally published at Kable.
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COMMENTS
What actually happened?
What was the core incompetence pointed to by "emailed an attachment to 469 students which contained the personal records of 1,700 people"?
Was it that the attachment properly contained records of 1700 people but should have only gone to one recipient? Did the originator confuse a personal email address with the name of a list of email addresses?
Or was it that the 469 recipients were indeed correctly specified, but the attachment contained extraneous information, perhaps due to an improperly specified DB extract?
Or was it a combination of both? Did the originator intend to send to each of 469 people only their own personal information?
And let me ask: were the 469 recipients' email addresses all stuffed into To: headers, or did the originator at least have the gumption to use BCC?
These questions are important because without the answers it's impossible to tell what actually went wrong. And without that knowledge, it's impossible to institute corrective education regarding email addressing, extraction from DBs, etc.
What I smell here is a secretary or other uneducated, underpaid flunky being delegated a task beyond their competence. IT isn't for dummies!
And there will always be idiots.
Unfortunately, the one thing idiots are good at is breeding so don't expect cock ups like this to get rarer no matter the 'punishment'.
Re: Censored, Enforcement?
"So, for a fairly serious breach of the DPA, Manchester Uni have.....been made to promise to do what they should have been doing anyway?
"Does the ICO get it's enforcement training from the Advertising Standards Agency?"
No, this is the way the Data Protection Act is written.
It is probable that Manchester Uni received an Enforcement Notice (see Section 40 of the Act). An offence only occurs if they fail to comply with the Enforcement Notice (see Section 47).
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