31 December 2006
Local Authority: Minutes of council meetings
I received a complaint from a member of the public concerning the publication on a local authority's website of the minutes of the Council's monthly meeting. The complainant informed me that his name and address had appeared in the minutes of the meeting in the context of the sale of lands and properties under the Affordable Housing and Shared Housing Schemes. He expressed concern at the publication of his personal data in this way on a local authority website as well as the ensuing exposure of his personal data on search engines.
My Office contacted the local authority on this matter. We pointed to the important principle outlined in the Annual Report in 2003 that, even where there is legislation providing that information must be made available to the public, this may not always mean that it is appropriate to place such information on a website. On foot of my Office's intervention, the local authority took swift remedial action. It removed the document containing the personal data and edited it in such a way that all names and addresses included on it in respect of the Affordable Housing and Shared Housing Schemes were removed. The local authority also contacted one particular search engine that the complainant was concerned about and sought the deletion of the record from its cache. Finally, the Authority undertook to ensure that the website version of its minutes would, in future, be edited to prevent the disclosure of personal data.
I am grateful to the complainant for bringing this matter to my attention. As a result of his complaint to my Office, the procedures that the local authority put in place following our intervention will have a positive impact on the protection of the privacy rights of many individuals.