This has been an interesting discussion and highlights an issue I think
we will see arising with increasing regularity in the coming years.  

 

In my agency we recently had an example where putting something online.
It went something like this:-

 

1. We are required by law to retain and publish in a publication called
"the Government Gazette" a register of doctors (known as the medical
register).

 

2. Among the details included in the medical register (by law) are the
doctor's name, their registration ID and their home address.  In the
past when this had been published only the name and registration ID were
published

 

3. One of the psychiatrists on the register had recently been the
subject of a nasty series of stalking incidents which involved a level
of violence by a former patient and this doctor had gone to considerable
trouble (with Police support) to get a silent telephone number and have
their NEW address hidden even on the electoral roll (yes the doctor
actually moved house due to this issue)

 

4. In line with the Government's policy the Government Gazette was made
available online.  This year someone decided to publish the entire
details of the medical register...not only the name and registration ID
but also home address and other identifying information.

 

5. This doctor had an unusual name and as it happens a google search of
their name produced the home address details as the second result.

 

6. A friend of the doctor in question noticed this about a week after it
had gone online and informed the doctor.

 

7. With help from the Police the doctor managed to have the particular
issue of the Government Gazette removed from the web within two days.

 

8. Google cache of course retained the information until, again with the
help of Police, it was removed from there too after another couple of
days.

 

9. The stalking former patient found the doctor's address within the 1-2
weeks that the information was widely available and went to the doctor's
house and physically attacked the doctor and her husband who both ended
up in hospital with severe injuries

 

Obviously there are several parts of this chain of events that could
have been handled better and procedures at a number of points have now
been improved as a result of this incident.  

 

However, I've lost some sleep over this incident and not only because
the doctor happens to be a friend of mine which is how I got involved at
the tail end of the scenario when she was trying to have the information
removed from the web. 

 

What it illustrates to me is how increasingly hard it is going to be to
appropriately manage information and access to it and how we RIM
professionals are possibly going to tear our hair out trying 

 

1. Big bureaucracies (private and public) will always keep lots of
personal information about people.

 

2. Someone will always deliberately or unintentionally misuse that
information

 

3. It will be increasingly difficult to shut the barn door after the
horse has galloped across the internet (just think about the recent HD
hack code incident at http://www.digg.com <http://www.digg.com/>  for
one example)

 

Cheers, Bernadette

 

Bernadette Bean

Records Management Strategist

Finance and Administration Division

Department of Health, South Australian Government

 

Phone (08) 8226 6154

Email (individual): [log in to unmask]

 

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