AIBU to think writing confidential HR notes on a train is inappropriate?

I have to confess I'm a bit puzzled why you think I should have done. Business don't succeed by being nice to competitors whose staff make corporate mistakes.

Reporting the individual would not necessarily lead to firing- likely only disciplined with a warning.

Also she would not be "siding with a corporate company" ! She would be siding with an individual....the one who had his data leaked and who was subject to harm!!!

What makes you think it is corporate allyship to point out to them that they have poor controls and behaviours!

Have a word with yourself

The fact that you could read the employee’s name and job title in a public place along with description of a grievance is a gross breach of gdpr!

Under the Employer’s duty of Integrity and confidentiality, employee’s personal data must be kept secure against loss, unauthorized access, or destruction.

You being able to see it is the unauthorised access, and the penalties against the employer are very severe for this. No HR employee worth their salt would dream of working with employee personal data in a public place without a privacy screen, and I am sure that even with one, they are breaking gdpr rules…

'Side with'? This isn't primary school, and it's not about 'siding with' anyone. It's about upholding the law, which is there to protect everyone.

The 'random corporate company' could equally be in trouble if it became known that their employees were so careless about data protection.

I hold keys for my workplace, which is a valuable building. It is my responsibility to lock up said workplace at the end of each day. If I neglected to do so, and someone broke in and trashed/robbed the place as a result, I would not be able to shrug off my negligence by noting that vandalism and robbery are illegal.

My takeaway from this thread is that MNers are far better at being nosy than I am.

I usually try to look at other people's screens if I can see they have Spotify open as I'm always interested in what they're listening to. I rarely manage it. I've also tried to glance at laptop screens on trains and never succeeded in seeing anything like the detail the OP has. I don't believe you'd ever be in a situation where you "just can't help" seeing a stranger's screen.

I would say that trying to get a random woman fired for something that doesn't remotely affect you is a far worse personality trait than her doing her job sloppily. In a situation where you don't owe any loyalty to either party, why on earth would you side with a random corporate company over a random individual? Have a word with yourself.

Wow - I hope you said something! Silly arses...

I think if this thread proves anything it's how little an idea the general public have about good data security.

You shouldn't be working on the train - or in cafés, anywhere public - if anything you do is confidential or handles client data.

I don't work on the train at all for this reason. Yes, people are busy and have time-pressured lives. That is no excuse, however.

I once sat opposite two men working for a competitor company discussing the company's business strategy to expand into exactly the area my employer was focused on.

It never ceases to surprise me what people do on the train. I once sat next to someone reading the pre-release financial statements for a large listed financial institution. More recently I could clearly see the draft Board minutes for a large asset manager.

Yup! People keep trying to blame the op. But everything all points back to the person who had the information on display - the person who’s job it is to protect the privacy of that information

It's more like peering through a hole in your fence at your naked neighbour.

The neighbour is on her own property. The train is a public place.

And I should think confidentiality and data protection requirements still apply even if you are wfh in your own house or garden. You would still need to ensure that no-one, not even your close family members, could see your screen or overhear calls.

That's not what I'm saying. It's more like peering through a hole in your fence at your naked neighbour.

If you were that concerned, why not tap her on the shoulder and point out your concerns to her?
Did you complain to the company?
If you did nothing, what is the purpose of your post? We can't do anything?

She's being very inappropriate to do that work in public. At companies I've worked for she's certainly be disciplined if caught.

But true…

I don’t think you should report it to the company! Perhaps the person was in a rush to complete said notes etc and just completely overlooked people can see her laptop. Sometimes I do confidential work on a train but just turn my brightness down… maybe she forgot to do that? I don’t think it’s worth her losing her job over just because you saw what she was writing. She might then lose her job and might be supporting her kids etc - who knows

In fairness, if the child was in the house she may have been trying to protect the child from over hearing .
I had a lot of calls in my car for that reason!

A couple of years ago I was trying to look out the window on a train, but the person in front of me’s phone was reflected, and for like twenty minutes he was just scrolling through photos of naked men.

Indeed this person is writing a report for data breech, whilst committing their own data breech.

Let the company know.

She is right though. Get a life

The amount of people on here advising to call the company and effectively try and get her fired, is mind boggling. And I cannot believe you OP, posted this on here. Mind your business.

Ignore them op. Even if you were being “nosey” the HR woman was way more in the wrong than you for having the information on public display when they, as an employee of the company have a duty to keep confidential information private.