Communication Privacy & the Data protection act

quickdraw2

Hypothetical question,
If, in a private communication between two parties a third party publishes part of the communication without authorization from the first two parties is that an offence under current Irish legislation ?

Responses welcome with opinion only.

NB. the last thing I want here is advise.

quickdraw2

to follow on from this,
If one party of the first two agreed to the publication of private data by by the third party
but the second party objected, would it's publication by the third party be in breach of the data protection act.

MagicSean

Certain correspondence carries an expectation of privacy. It would depend on the content and purpose of the correspondence.

Carawaystick

Just as an example, while an email might ostensibly be private, the protocol underpinning the mechanism transmitting the email from sender to recipient is pretty much the same as sending a postcard along a line of people

Victor

It would really depend on the nature of the content of the communication and means of publication.

If I intercepted a medical report that your doctor was posting to you and took out a full page ad in the Irish Times, there would be a presumption that it would be against the DPAs.

If I overhear your phone conversation on the street where you were planning a bank robbery and I told the Garda, that would not be against the DPAs - the information isn't personal information and there are public policy reasons to not allow bank robberies and qualified privilege in supplying the information to the appropriate authority.

In between, there will be a sliding scale.

It may be in the public interest to publish that sports star X is injured and can't play this weekend, even though the medical information would tend to be protected.

There may also be a difference between breaking the law to obtain information and innocently receiving it.

Certain information might be published for statutory reasons or the publication may be allowed where it is information as part of a court case.

Molloys Clondalkin

Just as an interest some emails have a little disclaimer on the end of them saying
This email is private blah blah blah does that have any legal standing?

quickdraw2

An email sent person to person could hardly be perceived to be like a postcard sent along a line of people.

Senario:
ISP admin publishes part of a private communication between first two parties, without their consent.

Is there any other legislation apart from the DPA to cover this.

MagicSean

quickdraw2 wrote: »

An email sent person to person could hardly be perceived to be like a postcard sent along a line of people.

Senario:
ISP admin publishes part of a private communication between first two parties, without their consent.

Is there any other legislation apart from the DPA to cover this.

Depends on the content and who it was published to. If it was a private correspondence planning to commit a crime for example this would not be treated the same way as private correspondence discussing baby names.

IRLConor

quickdraw2 wrote: »

An email sent person to person could hardly be perceived to be like a postcard sent along a line of people.

Carawaystick was talking about the technical implementation of e-mail as opposed to the legal aspects of it.

Technically, anyone with access to any machine processing or routing your mail can read it. Whether they may is an entirely different question.

quickdraw2

MagicSean wrote: »

Depends on the content and who it was published to. If it was a private correspondence planning to commit a crime for example this would not be treated the same way as private correspondence discussing baby names.

So would you say that an offence without intent, is not a crime ?

quickdraw2

IRLConor wrote: »

Carawaystick was talking about the technical implementation of e-mail as opposed to the legal aspects of it.

Technically, anyone with access to any machine processing or routing your mail can read it. Whether they may is an entirely different question.

The issue is the publishing of part of a private communication, not that it can read by the ISP or their staff.
if everyone communicating by email or sms knew that
the content is so insecure there wold be a lot less using it

IRLConor

quickdraw2 wrote: »

if everyone communicating by email or sms knew that the content is so insecure there wold be a lot less using it

Not necessarily. First, most humans are terrible at assessing risk even when they know the necessary facts. Second, many will choose convenience over risk even when they know they shouldn't.

People still do stupid stuff like send cash through the post, leave their handbag unattended in a busy pub, leave their car unlocked, etc.

Victor

Molloys Clondalkin wrote: »

Just as an interest some emails have a little disclaimer on the end of them saying
This email is private blah blah blah does that have any legal standing?

They aren't particularly useful. They would have greater standing in lawyer-lawyer communications (or other situations of privileged information, e.g. a doctor) than amongst other users. The reality though is that that people read the e-mail first and only then do they see the disclaimer.

MadsL

Hmm. One read of this is me fleshing out the details and wondering if the 3rd party is one of the party's employer.

If so, the employer owns all communication over the company's email servers so they can publish what ever they like.

In a nutshell, work emails are not private.