Jon Baines writes:
Mr Justice Cranston has suggested that there is a public interest factor when considering whether disclosure of personal data would be “fair” processing. I’m not sure that is right.
The first data protection principle (DPP1) in Schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) says that personal data must be processed “fairly” (and lawfully). But what does “fairly” mean?
In an interesting recent case (AB v A Chief Constable [2014] EWHC 1965 (QB)) the High Court determined that, on the very specific facts, it would not be fair, in terms of DPP1, and common law legitimate expectation, for a Chief Constable to send a second, non-standard, reference to the new employer of a senior police officer who was subject to disciplinary investigation. (The judgment merits close reading – this was by no means a statement of general principle about police references).
Read more of Jon’s commentary on Information Rights and Wrongs.
I have no idea whether Jon’s correct or not in his analysis, but I love to see this type of thoughtful analysis of data protection and privacy laws, whether here or abroad.