that employees should not share private information on the internet

[Samcro]

about the family they work with ?
If you work with vulnerable people, should you be made to sign an agreement that you won't share private stuff?

well yes of course
I'm a GP, sharing something about a patient either in a non-secure email or on social media is a sackable offence
same would go for nurses, social workers, teachers etc

in my experience, you do, in a professional environment.

the issue with private staff that you hire yourself to work in the home is that if you dont add that as part of the contract, you risk it happening.

i have never talked online about any of the children i've worked with!

Is this a facebook thing? like an employee saying what a shit day at work they've had and moaning about their boss - that type of thing?

Um um um.

Well aksherly, doctors publish information about patients on the internet every day. Complete with photos.

So I'm not sure a nanny posting info about an unidentifiable family is any kind of problem. (Thread which inspired this.)

There genuinely is an issue with social networks, though, where the drip-drip of information over time means an unidentifiable person slowly becomes an identifiable person.

Thread about a thread. She's asking for advice.

ImBatDog thats interesting, what if they are agency staff? is there a way of doing it then?

and no I am not talking about the I had a shit day type post on fb.
more the sharing of private information.
it worries me. I might be in the situation of "employing" someone and like i say it worries me.

its not a TAAT it was inspired by one as it worried me,

PausingFlatly but there is always a chance that the person could become identifiable.
but that is not the only thing, what a bout the person who's stuff is being shared without their permission.

(BTW, my GP publishes prolifically - chatty little musings in the BMJ, etc. And it's not the biggest of towns...)

if it was private information unique to that family and therefore making them identifiable then that's definitely wrong, i would be furious.

but then i'd be pretty annoyed at the thought of my employee discussing me and my family online whether anyone else would know it was me or not.

but again with the latter - we all moan about someone on here don't we? -Mil, SiL, husband etc. I suppose the difference is those people aren't paying us.

see the moaning I get. so someone saying.....silly small stuff. yeah fine
but the big stuff, say if you are a carer for a vulnerable adult.
one who can't "voice" their need for privacy.

how do you make sure it doesn't happen. would a contract work and if they then did it. could you sack them?(bit late I know)

Well indeed, Dino. Almost every thread on here is about SOMEONE's private business, often not the poster's.

Nurse posting about patients, patient posting about nurse; teacher discussing pupil, parents discussing teacher. It goes on and on.

If they're not identifiable, I don't think there's a lot can reasonably be done.

Ah, I must be looking at a different thread, then. I had an idea Sancro said something similar today about a thread which just mentions 2 children and their ages, one with (not uncommon) SN.

That one could be anyone, anywhere.

And yes, if the family is identifiable: quick march for the chop.

And in general, it's hard NOT to become identifiable on a forum, either slowly or suddenly when something happens. So better to say as little as possible if you're in a job like that.

MrDV I've done that on here. I said nothing on the thread, in the end I felt the most reasonable way to show I was doing it with good intentions was to use their details to message them on facebook.

They were horrified and got the thread pulled.

I think a thread asking for tips stating that you work in a certain field and would like to know how others handle a situation is fine if you keep it vague.

Once you're down to exact specifics you need to be prepared to take any consequences as a result.

They shouldn't be at all. It's called the data protection act and they could be prosecuted and could end up with a criminal record. You need to report it straight away.

I gathered that MrsDV, I know your not a cow. I just thought it was worth point out that it's easily done.

Well aksherly, doctors publish information about patients on the internet every day. Complete with photos.

And they will have asked permission, and if its going in a peer reviewed journal, they can be asked to prove that the patients gave informed consent. IIRC this is one of the ways Andrew Wakefield was found out.

If they're writing a case study, as a part of their learning/education they have to take steps to ensure that any info used is as anonymised as possible. As do Nurses. And I'm sure Physios/OT etc have the same rules and regs. Teachers/ Registered childminders can be reported to OFSTED.

So all of them have something to lose.

I imagine that if it was a one on one agreement, and the other person had nothing to lose i.e...: their registration with a professional body it would be difficult to enforce, unless you had the money to take them to court.

But if its a part of their contract to maintain confidentiality and they don't I can't see why you couldn't sack them.

You could make it explicate in their contract that it would be a sacking offence. But if its in the care of a vulnerable adult/child etc, you would have to acknowledge the 'get out' of if they believe the person is being mistreated that they will not be penalised for reporting this to the police/hospital staff etc.

that is the problem, it is so easy to be identified if you have a disability.
so surely steps have to be taken to make sure the carer(in my case) knows they will lose their job if they do it.

PasstheDaimbars that last bit is interesting, never thought of that

Well aksherly, doctors publish information about patients on the internet every day. Complete with photos

That is indeed true, and I'm sure if you google a very specific type of breast surgery you'd see various pictures of my boobs and muffin top

But I had to sign ninety gazillion forms in triplicate consenting to allow the Surgeon to show his own work despite my head not being in any of the pictures.

And every so often I get a letter asking for further consent if they are to published elsewhere.