Privacy
There has been a lot of media coverage about Local Authorities accessing social media to find information about parents.
When a Local Authority decides to investigate in this way they have to comply with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
Once a Local Authority has received the data they then have to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 in regards to how they act with the data.
The Information Commissioner has advised that anyone who has concerns that a Local Authority has acted as in the above case they should:
- Submit a Subject Access Request in writing. As well as asking for a copy of the data it hold, they should also ask for how it came into possession of the data and for the source of the information. In most cases the organisation should not ask for a charge for this.
- They should ask for a list of all who they have shared the data with, and for anyone who they might consider sharing the data with in the future.
- They should ask how they believe they are processing the individual’s data in a fair and lawful manner given that they have personal data obtained from a place where there is an expectation of privacy, and for their reasons for deciding to proceed with processing the personal data when they received it.
- They should ask them to identify which lawful basis for processing, and which condition for processing sensitive data, that the organisation has relied upon to enable them to process the personal data.
- They should ask them for a written response to all these points, and that if they do not receive a satisfactory response within 28 days then they should raise this as a concern with the Information Commissioners Office.
All content on this website is to enable parents to have access to the information they need to make their own decisions and is not advice. None of the information is original, this is collated documents freely available on the web or the Information Commissioners Office and links are provided to show the original source and author of each item where possible.
An Article by Barristers Adam King and Mark Aldred discussing the duties under RIPA 2000 when using Facebook or other online resources when conducting investigations.
Solicitor Ibrahim Hasan
blogs about when Investigations using social media will require RIPA 2000 authorisation.
Solicitor Ibrahim Hasan
blogs about the changes introduced by the Freedoms Act 2012 requiring Local Authorities to obtain the approval of a magistrate to be able to use their powers under RIPA 2000.
An example of a Local Authorities social media policy for the purposes of Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. This gives examples of when there would be a reasonable expectation of privacy on social media,
A blog explaining how the Computer Misuse Act 1990 makes it against the law for any person to use a computer to obtain unauthorised access to data.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal is a court which investigates and determines complaints which allege that public authorities or law enforcement agencies have unlawfully used covert techniques and infringed our right to privacy.
The Tribunal has been noted to only take action in the most serious of cases, so it would be necessary to take advice as to whether it is better to use the Tribunal or your local complaint process/ombudsman for your individual circumstances.
A blog post exploring the legal issues regarding an NHS organisation accessing a blog about its services.
Advice from the Information Commissioners Office as to how to obtain copies of infor.a Subject Data Access request
The conditions for processing are set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, which states the conditions that must be met in order for the processing of data to be lawful.
Special category data is personal data which the GDPR says is more sensitive and so needs more protection, and there are additional criteria which must be met for an organisation to lawfully process this data.
