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GDPR query = employer disclosing personal phone no. to AGS h]

Rockfish

Im a postman and today i received a phone call from a Garda, who introduced himself by name and told me is a member of the Drugs Unit. He had got my number off someone in our depot and he proceeded to ask me about packages that i may have delivered to a named person as they had received a tip off. As it tuns out i hadnt delivered anything and told him that, he then told me to keep his number and to give him a call if i noticed anything suspicious. It was only on hanging up that i began to think wtf??? Im am furious but not sure where i stand. My initial reaction was to ring my manager and fk the head of him but i calmed down and decided to wait until tomorrow morning and i am wondering where do i stand in all of this? I presume work has no right to give out my number? And im now very concerned that the Gardai have my number and may think im some sort of source for them given the nature of my job? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks

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whippet

Is it a work phone?

wench

Is it your personal phone number, or one issued by your employer?

Rockfish

Private phone

harr

I can see why you are angry and rightly or wrongly your number was given out but the guards probably would have caught up with up eventually. Probably rang depot and made enquires on who delivered to a certain address and asked if you were around and the person thinking they were doing the right thing gave out the number.
If you know for definite who gave the number out maybe have a word but probably best not to go landing them in bother unless of course it was HR or a manager who gave them the number.
Not sure if you have to give guards a number if requested.

listermint

They could have just called to your front door.

Which do you prefer the phone call or the door call because your not going to get any retribution talking GDPR nonsense. Your a person of interest in an investigation so knock knock would have been the second approach.

I suggest you calm down.

Masala

so What’s the problem....?? So your number is out there’s and someone used it.

Do u pass it to the local Chinese takeaway wh3n ordering a sweet n sour special... ..?? Or online when ordering stuff??

You could be helping a preventing a death from drugs.... I don’t see what the problem is

wench

From a data protection point of view, the Garda should have left contact details with the depot, and asked to be called back.
Giving out the OPs personal info is not on.

silver2020

So you work for an post and deliver packages to people's home on a daily basis?

A garda has a tip-off that someone is getting packages delivered and makes an enquiry to the local an post depot to see if they can provide any help. Manager gives the garda your phone number as you are obviously on that run so that the garda can just ask if you could provide any info that could help?

Garda has probably done the same to DPD Fastway, DHL, Nightline etc

Am I missing something?

You're "furious" over this? - If it was me, I'd be happy to assist in anyway and would have zero issues. Nada, zilch, none.

TheChizler

listermint wrote: »

They could have just called to your front door.

Which do you prefer the phone call or the door call because your not going to get any retribution talking GDPR nonsense. Your a person of interest in an investigation so knock knock would have been the second approach.

I suggest you calm down.

And then we'd have a thread about work giving out their address. The correct thing to do would have been to take the Garda's details and have the OP contact them.

Atlantic Dawn

How does anyone know it was a Garda at all who called OP, could be a rival drug dealer, neighbour wanting to rob a valuable parcel coming in, etc etc.

If I was OP I would call local Garda station and verify the number if a Garda mobile, they normally have numbers in a certain range if officially issued.

listermint

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

How does anyone know it was a Garda at all who called OP, could be a rival drug dealer, neighbour wanting to rob a valuable parcel coming in, etc etc.

If I was OP I would call local Garda station and verify the number if a Garda mobile, they normally have numbers in a certain range if officially issued.

Numbers in a certain range of officially issued...

Yeah no. Maybe if the numbers were got ten years ago.

listermint

TheChizler wrote: »

And then we'd have a thread about work giving out their address. The correct thing to do would have been to take the Garda's details and have the OP contact them.

You know GDPR doesn't cover this . Right.

Right...?

TheChizler

listermint wrote: »

You know GDPR doesn't cover this . Right.

Right...?

Didn't say it did. GDPR or no an employer shouldn't be giving out employee info without the consent of the employee or a valid legal reason.

Rockfish

Ok thanks for the replies, maybe im over reacting. Personally as regarding my data rights i tend to agree that the depot should have contacted me first to see if it was ok. Regarding the Gardai contacting me, fair enough i suppose but ill be politely hanging up if they contact me again

Rockfish

Masala wrote: »

so What’s the problem....?? So your number is out there’s and someone used it.

Do u pass it to the local Chinese takeaway wh3n ordering a sweet n sour special... ..?? Or online when ordering stuff??

You could be helping a preventing a death from drugs.... I don’t see what the problem is

I was looking for legal advice not a moralising lecture. If i put my number out there online or wherever thats my decision. Its completely different for someone else to pass it on, especially my employer. And i do see a problem in getting involved, i live in a small town and know the person at the centre of the inquiry. I wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of him.

harr

Rockfish wrote: »

Ok thanks for the replies, maybe im over reacting. Personally as regarding my data rights i tend to agree that the depot should have contacted me first to see if it was ok. Regarding the Gardai contacting me, fair enough i suppose but ill be politely hanging up if they contact me again

Why In gods name would you hang up on the guards , it’s not like they are looking to turn you into a super informer and I would definitely see how your employers feel about you with holding information. You are delivering for the National postal service and I am sure it’s part of your job to report anything suspicious.. the same way anyone in the sorting Depot would need to report any suspicious packages.

hullaballoo

Article 23 GDPR wrote:

Restrictions
Union or Member State law to which the data controller or processor is subject may restrict by way of a legislative measure the scope of the obligations and rights provided for in Articles 12 to 22 and Article 34, as well as Article 5 in so far as its provisions correspond to the rights and obligations provided for in Articles 12 to 22, when such a restriction respects the essence of the fundamental rights and freedoms and is a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society to safeguard:
...
(d) the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, including the safeguarding against and the prevention of threats to public security;

As you can see from the above, and as you can probably tell from the current restrictions to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, your rights are not absolute.

For good reason, if done proportionately, your rights can be restricted.

AGS carry out an important function for the common good, which in the within circumstances would tend to outweigh the value of your right not to have your phone number shared with them.

Would be strange were it any other way when you think about it.

ezra_

hullaballoo wrote: »

As you can see from the above, and as you can probably tell from the current restrictions to control the spread of SARS-CoV-2, your rights are not absolute.

For good reason, if done proportionately, your rights can be restricted.

AGS carry out an important function for the common good, which in the within circumstances would tend to outweigh the value of your right not to have your phone number shared with them.

Would be strange were it any other way when you think about it.

As an aside - why do people cite the regulations themselves, and not the Irish enactment of them?

BnB

"Rockfish wrote: »

Regarding the Gardai contacting me, fair enough i suppose but ill be politely hanging up if they contact me again

Why?

28064212

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2018/act/7/enacted/en/print#sec41

Processing for purpose other than purpose for which data collected
41. Without prejudice to the processing of personal data for a purpose other than the purpose for which the data has been collected which is lawful under the Data Protection Regulation, the processing of personal data and special categories of personal data for a purpose other than the purpose for which the data has been collected shall be lawful to the extent that such processing is necessary and proportionate for the purposes—
(a) of preventing a threat to national security, defence or public security,
(b) of preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting criminal offences, or
(c) set out in paragraph (a) or (b) of section 47 .

So the office likely did nothing wrong in disclosing the number

Peregrinus

Well, two comments:

First, is disclosing an employee's mobile phone number "necessary and proportionate" for the purposes of the Garda investigation? I suggest not; the employer could instead offer to pass on a message to the employee to ring the Garda concerned.

Secondly, even if passing on the number wasn't a breach of GDPR, it doesn't follow that it wasn't a breach of any legal duty. There's an employment relationship between the employer and the employee, and a duty of confidence is implied in that relationship (even if it isn't explicitly stated in the contract of employment). Normally this is relevant to the employee passing on the employer's confidential information, but it works the other way too.

TheChizler

Even if the Gardaí did have absolute authority to demand this information without a court order, it sounds like there was no verification of the Garda's identity. It really would have been best to just take the name and station where they could be contacted.

I know it's unlikely that anything untoward is going on but An Post owe their staff a basic duty of care when giving out their personal info.

hullaballoo

ezra_ wrote: »

As an aside - why do people cite the regulations themselves, and not the Irish enactment of them?

EU Regulations have direct effect and are supreme to the laws of Member States enacting them.

So, GDPR is the primary source of the law.

This is different to EU Directives, which do not have direct effect and have to be implemented by Member State legislation.

Where there is an inconsistency between National law and Union law, Union law trumps National law.

So it is more accurate to refer to the Regulation because whatever might be in the National legislation is contingent on its compatibility with the Reg.

That and irishstatutebook.ie wouldn't load for me.

angel eyes 2012

hullaballoo wrote: »

EU Regulations have direct effect and are supreme to the laws of Member States enacting them.

So, GDPR is the primary source of the law.

This is different to EU Directives, which do not have direct effect and have to be implemented by Member State legislation.

Where there is an inconsistency between National law and Union law, Union law trumps National law.

So it is more accurate to refer to the Regulation because whatever might be in the National legislation is contingent on its compatibility with the Reg.

That and irishstatutebook.ie wouldn't load for me.

I don't think the GDPR applies in the case of AGS, I would consider AGS is processing personal data under the Law Enforcement Directive (LED), this transposition is achieved through part 5 of 2018 Act (section 70) - Processing of Personal Data for Law Enforcement Purposes.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2018/act/7/section/70/enacted/en/html

The GDPR applies in the case of An Post - ideally they should have passed on the Garda's contact details to the OP, however I don't know if they are deemed a competent authority for the processing of personal data under the LED.

Carawaystick

Peregrinus wrote: »

Well, two comments:

First, is disclosing an employee's mobile phone number "necessary and proportionate" for the purposes of the Garda investigation? I suggest not; the employer could instead offer to pass on a message to the employee to ring the Garda concerned.

Secondly, even if passing on the number wasn't a breach of GDPR, it doesn't follow that it wasn't a breach of any legal duty. There's an employment relationship between the employer and the employee, and a duty of confidence is implied in that relationship (even if it isn't explicitly stated in the contract of employment). Normally this is relevant to the employee passing on the employer's confidential information, but it works the other way too.

I'm not in anyway suggesting Rockfish is involved in the crime, but if a dodgy delivery person was to get a message from their boss saying the cops were looking to talk to them, it would be much less use than the cops ringing to talk to the delivery person cold.

I'd imagine the cops have ways to find out your number anyway

Shelflife

Just to point out that the OP said that "someone" at the depot gave his number to the Garda, It could have been a friend or co worker there and not his employer/manager.