Leader: The riddle of the dumped council documents
Monday 28th November 2011, 1:30PM GMT.
It should be taken as read that you can trust your local council to keep your confidential personal information just that – confidential.
And not dumped in a Telford rubbish bin available to be sifted through and perused by anyone who comes across it.
But that is exactly what has happened to Telford & Wrekin Council documents ranging from details of job applicants and staff sickness to a list of children who are receiving meals at Moorfield Primary School in Newport.
Incredibly, the dumped documents include a copy of the council’s information security policy.
The council says it is taking the matter very seriously, and so it should. Luckily, the documents were found by people with a sense of public responsibility. That was just chance.
For somebody of malign intent the documents could have been a potential goldmine, giving them ammunition to get up to embarrassing mischief, at best, to fraud, blackmail, or worse at the other end of the spectrum.
As the material was sticking out of a bin near a car wash at Wrekin Retail Park, it looks highly likely that the culprit was in a car. Which raises a whole number of other questions.
Why would such documents be carried in a car, rather than kept safe in the office – and disposed of safely in the office? Is there a rogue employee who just cannot be bothered to follow the proper procedures?
There has been a major dereliction of individual and corporate duty. It makes a hollow mockery of questions on council forms which assure respondents that their responses will be confidential.
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SCC seems to be a bit of a sieve! The problem might be in accordance the the iceberg syndrom. What else might be found in dustbins or whatever? Dear SCC security is very real – take it seriously or someone might just start looking into your wallets and bedrooms and you never know who that might be.
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It’s Telford & Wrekin, not SCC. Remember, the clue’s in the article.
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Not SCC or even SC, it was from Telford & Wrekin!
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A lot of questions to be asked I think.
1. In what circumstances did the employee leave their job at the council?
2. Who goes through bins?
3. Why hand the documents to a newspaper & not the rightful owner?
It’s as if these stories come out of thin air
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