The biggest data protection challenges facing organisations do not stem solely from cyber-attacks or AI deployment; they also arise from employees. Sometimes it’s an innocent mistake; an email sent to the wrong person, confidential information shared inadvertently or a document uploaded to the wrong system. In other cases, the issues are more serious; employees accessing information they have no business looking at, taking confidential data when they leave, or deliberately misusing personal information.
When those situations arise, employers need to investigate what has happened, decide whether a breach needs to be reported to the ICO and manage employment law issues such as disciplinary action; all the while protect the rights of the individuals whose data is involved, including employees.
And then there’s the inevitable employee Data Subject Access Request, or DSAR to deal with. Often made alongside a grievance or before Employment Tribunal proceedings, DSARs can present significant legal and practical challenges for employers trying to balance transparency with confidentiality and legal privilege.
In Episode 13 of the Guardians of Data podcast we explore:
- what happens when employees are involved in personal data breaches;
- the legal and practical issues arising when employees misuse personal data;
- how employers should approach workplace investigations involving personal data; and
- how to respond effectively to employee Data Subject Access Requests.
Our guest is Andrew Latham, a partner in the Public Law team at Capsticks, who specialises in data protection and privacy law.
Listen on your preferred platform via our podcast page, or download the episode directly.
This podcast is sponsored by Phaselaw – a purpose-built solution for document disclosures, like subject access requests and FOI requests. Instead of redacting PDFs one by one, or forcing litigation software to do a job it wasn’tdesigned for, with Phaselaw you get collection, review, and redaction in one workflow. Teams across the World are using it to cut response times from weeks to days.
For Guardians of Data listeners, Phaselaw is offering a two-month free trial; run it on live requests, see what it does to your backlog, decide from there. No card, no commitment.
Head to https://www.phase.law/guardians to claim your free trial.
Previous episodes of the Guardians of Data podcast have featured Caroline Wong talking about responsible the impact of AI on Cybersecurity, Jen Persson, a privacy campaigner, explaining the privacy implications of the Government’s new plans for children’s data, and Ilyas Nagdee analysing the impact of predictive policing in human rights.
