Keeping our records safe

Tuesday 03 February 2015

Civil servants are being urged to help make sure our personal information doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

They have all had a message from the boss asking them come up with ideas so that data like our health records or tax information could be better stored and recorded.

States chief executive John Richardson said: “Working on behalf of the public we all come across information about people that needs to be treated sensitively and carefully. Whether it’s dealing with patients, young people or Islander’s financial details we deal with some of the most delicate data that exists about people living in our island.

“Our duty to collect and look after that data carefully, to keep it securely, and to use it only where it is appropriate to do so, is not just a legal duty under the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005, it is also a moral obligation.”

The message went out via the States intranet system to coincide with World Data Protection day on Wednesday.

Data Protection Commissioner Emma Martins said: “It is pleasing to note that the States of Jersey is taking today as an opportunity to ask staff to take a moment to think about how sensitive the data that they work with is, what it might mean if it got into the wrong hands, and how they might be able to handle data more securely.

“As our digital footprints grow ever larger – and particularly given the move towards e-government systems – these are issues that must be taken seriously.”