Some scenarios
Scenario 1
Rosie is a tea party group coordinator. To help herself organise her tea parties she has created a group chat on WhatsApp which includes the details of her drivers and her hosts. Rosie shares general information about the tea parties within the WhatsApp group and also uses it to send reminders to everyone about occasional changes of plan. Rosie also uses the WhatsApp group to share addresses of tea party hosts and older guests.
Does Rosie handle personal information safely?
Using WhatsApp to communicate with the volunteers in her group and to send reminders is a quick and easy way to organise a tea party group, but everyone must agree to be in the WhatsApp group first.
However, by sharing personal information such as full names and addresses in the group chat, Rosie has not kept other people’s personal data safe. Personal and sensitive information must only be shared with people who have a right or need to see it. For example, Rosie must only give an older guest’s address to the driver who is collecting the older guest.
Scenario 2
Jill and Jane are close friends and they both volunteer as drivers for an activity group. One day Jill and Jane were enjoying a coffee in a local coffee shop and talking about a recent interesting conversation Jill had had with an older person at their activity group. Surprisingly, Jill knew the older person’s daughter from her school days. During their conversation, Jill told Jane the older person’s full name, where he lives, what he used to do for a living, his children’s names and where they currently live.
Is the older person’s information handled safely?
No, it isn’t. Jill should never disclose any personal or sensitive information about any older guests or volunteers. We never know who might be sitting close by and what they might do with the personal information they can gain access to. Although Jill and Jane are close friends and may both have information about the older guests in their group, they should never discuss this, especially in a public place.