To get my brother fired

[Hooplahooping]

A couple of months ago my brother told me he looked at my students files while he was working in the student office (he’s doing a masters at the uni I did my under grad at yrs ago - and is working in admin there part time while studying

I brushed it off at the time as poor judgement. But it bothered me sufficiently that I requested my own records to see what was on file there which arrived today.

• All my transcripts + degree grades etc
• A disciplinary panel record from when I sloppily referenced an essay + had to discuss plagerism with faculty and re submit.
• a disciplinary record for poor seminar attendance and ‘attendance agreement’
• a letter from my GP about anxiety
• a letter from Marie Stopes about a pregnancy termination which required absence from said seminar series I’d signed an attendance agreement.
• some standard halls of residence + student loan details.

I am truly not ashamed of 19 year old me - nor is any of it info that would explode my life if the world knows (DH knows everything anyway) - but that doesn’t mean that I would chose to share that information widely. Certainly not with a brother who I am not particularly close to.

I’m happy now, I have a happy balanced life with DH and two lovely DDs

what was he thinking? Is he trying to secretly shame me? Hang it over my head to make me feel bad?

He’s extremely brittle and if I ask him about it further he’ll cry and make excuse and melt into a puddle.

I think I’m just going to sit down and tell my parents all the potentially upsetting stuff just so I feel like I have control of the information. I’m not concerned that it will change their opinion of me.

I am furious though. I want to tell the university and get him fired.

how dare he? I’m so fed up with treading on eggshells around him because ‘life is harder for him’

If it’s been a few months and he hasn’t brought it up again, why would you tell your parents anything?

is he blackmailing you?

He sounds like a dick. He is probably making it up thinking it would wind you up. But he didn’t get the reaction he wanted.

If he hasn’t said anything I would continue to ignore it

Oh yeah- we do hold some info on degree classification as infinitum I believe, but certainly not all the personal info you describe.

I believe we only hold detail digitally on our main systems for 10 years at which point it’s backed up onto a different system fewer staff access and then after 15/20years it’s got rid of.

He’s likely bullshitting you but nonetheless could lose his job for that too as he’s bringing the institution into massive disrepute

Your brother should not have looked you up, but also the University should not be holding that kind of information longer than necessary according to the law. So most of that info should have been shredded years ago, certainly when GDPR came in. Why on earth would they be holding onto a letter regarding your personal medical issues? (I believe most NHS Trusts didn't used to retain mental health notes post 20 years last contact and even that has probably been reduced.) I'm pretty sure they are breaking the law. I think the only things they should retain are your name, dates you were there and the grades achieved - also I believe they used to keep dissertations/research on file and probably still do.

What is the Data Retention policy of the college ? Is the information held in paper format, or digitally ?

I take it you did a Data Subject Access request, which will pull information from various data sources, not just your personal file. I think it’s important that you are clear about what was accessible by him, and, if he accessed it.

I really doubt he has seen such personal details.

If you complained though they would check and he’d have a case to answer if he even searched for you (regardless of whether he found the records)

He's calling your bluff and playing mind games. Please ignore it and him, hes being cruel for whatever reason.

@chiwowowa yeah we keep transcripts as some courses require them in the application, you’d have to pay a small fee for them though and usually only get a hard copy, they’re not kept on our main student info systems

If you worked for the NHS and did that, you could be sacked for gross misconduct.
Accessing anyone's records , even your own, is a huge breach of Information Governance, and would result in disciplinary action. I would imagine this is the same in many public offices such as education, and if it were my records I would be raising the fact that had been accessed inappropriately.

Unless he's given you details of what's in your records I would assume he's talking rubbish and has not actually seen your file.

I wouldn't, in your place, tell your parents what your records contain, it's not their business either, but I would definitely read my brother the riot act and tell him that if you become aware of such actions by him again this will be reported to his employers.

Let him get defensive and weep, don't be manipulated by it.

He's trying to hold some sort of power over you by telling you he's seen your file. Don't give him the satisfaction of thinking he has any such power.

I would, I get on with my brother but if I found out he’d purposely read my file I would be so angry. Similar to yourself there’s nothing shattering in it, but I’d be a lucky one unlike someone else’s file he’s probably read.
im also petty.

And absolutely no need to involve your parents! Why would you do that?!?

Sorry to shout but WHERE IS EVERYONE GETTING 20 YEARS FROM??

I've read and re-read the OP and it's not stated ANYWHERE that the records are 20 years old.

I wonder if there is some sort of neurodivergence

Neurodivergent people tend to follow rules, so I doubt it. This is plain male entitlement and wanting something to hold over you.

Please do report this to his employer, especially if he told you by text as he can't deny it then. Don't worry about "getting him fired" as that was actually his decision to risk that outcome when he peeked. As an engineer, he will be subject to a high standard of ethics in his working life and if he doesn't even respect his own family's privacy, then he's not fit to practice. By reporting him, you are protecting the public from him.

If your parents are even vaguely decent, they will have your back on this.

I probably wont get him vindictively fired. But I know if I take it up with him he’ll meltdown. I just don’t know what to do with my huge feelings around it.

Well, I think you should get him fired, the horrible, bitter, inadequate little shit.

I work for a university and I actually think it’s highly unlikely that he was able to access all of that information. I would actually have an incredibly difficult time accessing most of that, even as a permanent member of the faculty. Our systems are not at all that good (embarrassingly!).

But personally, I would report it to the university and let them handle it and he will have to face the consequences. We take these sorts of things very seriously at my university.

I'm sorry, I wouldn't give a crap about his feelings, and would report it. He has no insight into why what he did is wrong, did it to find out information about you, then used that information to let you know he had one over on you. Which seems to be a bit of a pattern as he thinks he's the smartest and no one compares. I would initially inform your parents- is he likely to lose his university place too, or just the job. He's been sneaky and it sounds like he is like that, I'd say it's a pretty important life lesson to learn

What have you decided to do @Hooplahooping?

Personally, I wouldn’t report him (you have confided in him before and this could really screw things up for him).

Perhaps just talk to him about it, find out what he knows and tell him that he must keep those things to himself as what he did was potentially illegal and a sackable offence. If he then tells your parents, that’s the time to think about taking it further. The only part which would really bother me if he told others is the termination.

I'm agog at some of the responses here, particularly the person who thinks it's no big deal and would probably have a peak at acquaintances' private information out of curiosity.

@Hooplahooping you are not a fuck up.

Your brother cries when things don't suit him? Well, let's all do that then. Boo Hoo for him.

I'd contact the University and say you've been told someone has been perusing your records without any authority or reason to do so and request sight of what's actually held on file. Then take it from there.

As for fall out with your parents, should there be an issue, that's on him not on you, but you definitely need a word with him over all this irrespective of what the actual facts are.

I work in information security and this is a serious data breach and goes against the UK Data Protection Act (the UK's implementation of GDPR since Brexit). I'm not entirely sure whether the university has a justifiable reason for keeping this data for so long anyway (I work in a different sector so am not familiar with whether universities would have a valid argument for keeping data, but the uni should have a Data Retention Policy that outlines its approach). An employee looking up such data would be a serious disciplinary matter. I don't know how you should proceed given that it is your brother, but if this is his attitude it seems quite likely he may have been looking up files of other people too. If it was me I would be reporting it to the university. As @ExtraOnions says, you don't know for sure exactly what he has accessed, it may not be all of it, so you may wish to try and find out for your own peace of mind (either from him or the uni) exactly what he saw.

Unless he had a reason to look at your file then this is a serious breach of gdpr and I would absolutely tell the uni what he admitted to you. He could be doing it to others as well and it really isnt on at all

Neurodivergent people tend to follow rules

That is a huge stereotype.

Now tell us what you really think ! 😀

I’m confused as to why they still have all that.

I tried to get transcripts from 18 years ago recently and was told they don’t have any from pre-2008 because they weren’t routinely kept plus GDPR rules said they couldn’t keep anything that long.

To be fair OP doesn't say how long ago she graduated, but six years after graduation for the personal / disciplinary would be reasonable. Transcripts will be held forever!