Re:Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual
by DoubleGlazing on Thursday July 30, 2020 @12:34PM
(#24000131)
This was in 2013, pre-GDPR but in 1998 DPA territory. Yes, I do feel it was probably a DPA violation even back then.
In Ireland next of kin is purely for cases where the person has been incapacitated/hurt and someone needs to be told. Nothing to do with dispersal of benefits etc. There's a separate process for all that.
Re:Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual
by SilasX on Thursday July 30, 2020 @12:39PM
(#24000198)
Sorry, yes, I forgot to include informing them of a workplace injury. And I assume GDPR wasn't in force there and then, just thinking of it as a hypothetical.
Re:Brown M&Ms, or Why No One Reads the Manual
by DoubleGlazing on Thursday July 30, 2020 @12:51PM
(#24000345)
The 1998 DPA was still pretty strict. I have no doubt the DPA was violated when they called my wife.
I blame the manager who came from a sales background. His response to every problem was to "call someone", rather than have the team work out what was wrong.
Minor tangent, but that got me to wonder: would that be legal under the GDPR, which only allows you to use data for the (legitimate) purpose it was collected for?
In this case, they gathered next-of-kin info for (I assume) disbursal of benefits when the employee is dead or incapacitated. “To find the employee after he quits” would be out of that scope, then, right?