The case in question pertains to a municipal government (City of Ottawa)
and disclosure laws pertaining to governments can be quite different
than those pertaining to private or even some public institutions.
This ruling is consistent with most applications of the right-to-know
laws (FOIA, Sunshine Laws, etc.) for municipal governments in the
States. Records created on public equipment are public records -- with
some exceptions pertaining to confidential information (e.g., Social
Security numbers) or information excluded from right-to-know laws.
Whenever an employee logs into our city computers, there is a pop-up of
our policy that reaffirms that any information on the computer is public
information. This policy extends to city Blackberries, voice mail
systems, etc.
There are no personal drives. When an employee leaves, a supervisor has
the right to sift through the "personal" drive to recover any material
that may be housed there that is relevant to the department's operation.
Still, a misconception persists among some municipal employees that
there are "personal" or private files on his or her work computer. With
very rare exceptions, almost everything is public -- the emails, Outlook
Calendar, the record of websites visited, the letters written on the PC,
pictures downloaded or uploaded, etc.
Sometimes employees or elected officials fight disclosure in the Courts.
Sometimes they win small battles, but those instances are rare.
Paul R. Bergeron
City Clerk
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
603-589-3004
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Carolyn Heald
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 9:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Personal records at work
Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner recently ruled that an
employee's personal email about the employee's volunteer activities is
considered to be in the custody and control of the institution if it
resides on the institution's servers, and is therefore subject to access
to information legislation, even if it has nothing to do with the
business of the institution. In this particular instance which concerns
a municipality, the city's computer policy permits its employees to use
the email system for such activities. Further, under its records
retention schedule, such records are considered transitory.
I find this ruling quite disturbing, so I'd like to know if this issue
has come up in other jurisdictions and how it been resolved. Thanks.
The order can be found here:
http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Findings/MO-2408.pdf
Carolyn Heald | Director, Records and Information Management |
Information and Privacy Office | York University | 4700 Keele Street,
N945 Ross | Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 | 416 736-2100, ext 20398 This
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