31 July 2008
In brief
Protection of personal data and human rights are inextricably linked, according to a judgment in the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The case concerned a Finnish woman who sued her employer for failing to keep her medical records private after news leaked out that she had AIDS. Although she lost her initial case and a subsequent appeal, the ECtHR held that her data would have been protected if privacy laws had been correctly followed. Dr Chris Pounder of Pinsents Masons says: “Organisations have to be proactive in their security practices and procedures, it is not sufficient to say they will do something securitywise, it will be important to show that that something has been done.”
