What does the law say?· The protection of data in the Republic ofIreland is clearly defined in the Data protection acts of 1988 & 2003.According to these acts, any information kept about you must accurate and givenonly to those who should be in possession of it for a good reason. Citizens ofthe state have the right to access any information about themselves and have itcorrected if need be and in some cases have it erased. Should your informationbe held for the use of direct marketing, you can have it erased also.
· According to the law, data protectioncovers not only information stored electronically but also on paper e.g.personnel files stored in folders. · The responsibility of overseeing properconduct when processing private data falls on the office of the datacommissioner.
The commissioner is a government appointee, however they areindependent in the in the course of their work. Should anyone feel that theirinformation is not being dealt with in the correct and legally required manner,they can bring the situation to the attention of the data commissioner, who canthen use their powers to enforce the act and resolve the issue. · In the event of incurring damage due to abreach of the provisions of the act, the affected party may sue for compensationthrough the courts. Examplesin the workplace· Only when a candidate for employmentbecomes an employee can the employer began retaining their information and theinformation must be relevant. A prospective employer may not ask for a PPSN orany bank account details before the candidate begins an employee. An employermay not keep copies of passports or similar documents without cause. · An employer should not retain personalinformation beyond the time when it has served its use.
· An Employer should not post anyinformation relating to an employee or client without prior consent. Thisincludes visual media being posted to the internet. · Employees have the right to request a dataform containing all information that the employer has collected on theemployee.