Carloyn

Perhaps I am missing something and have an overly USA centric view -- but it seems that your work in support of Archivaria is a university authorized activity that falls within the scope of your employment.  If this is correct any documentation that you generate are university records not records of Archivaria. 

I know that this get pretty dicey in an academic world of multi institutional collaboration but in the absence of a contract that states otherwise I would believe that records generated within the scope of your employment are the property and responsibility of your employer.

David Gaynon
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carolyn Heald
Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 5:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Personal records at work

Perhaps I should clarify my original concern about the Ontario order. It's not that an employee should expect "personal" communciations sent or received on an employer's assets to be private; I agree that the employer has a reasonable right of access.  It's that the general public now has a right of access under access to information legislation to records of entities that wouldn't normally be subject to such law.

For example, I'm the General Editor of Archivaria, the scholarly journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists.  My employer has given me a certain amount of time to do some of this work at the office because it supports the academic mandate of the university.  I use my York University email address because it adds to my credibility.  I don't care that my employer can see what I'm up to with the journal.  I don't care that the IT folks can read my emails.  What I care about is that anyone now can make an access to information request specifically to gain access to Archivaria records which are not normally under the purview of the access legislation.  Now supposing someone made such a request, it's unlikely they would get many of the records because (a) the ACA as the third party would object, and (b) there are various exemptions in the legislation that could be used to restrict access.  But it would use up a lot of the university's resources having to process such a request, and it would be a drain on the professional association's scant resources as well.

So in my mind, this isn't a privacy issue--it's about access to information creep.
 
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 



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