Is this GDPR breach

[Harass3d]

A complaint has been lodged with my employer about a comment I made on social media (not upheld!). This complaint has come from the head teacher at my son's school and he has identified himself as such (fine) but then goes on to identify me as a parent (which has no relevance to his complaint) am I right in thinking this is a breach of GDPR? It is no business of my employers where my son goes to school.

"Not possible due to our rural location we only have access to one secondary school."

While I think the HT's behaviour is terrible because he had no business going to your employer, if there is only one school your child could go to, how is which school he/she goes to a data breach? Because anybody could guess he goes to the local school/see him in school uniform or whatever.

He really has cemented himself as a dick here. I would write to the school governors.

Why would your employer care if you think the headteacher is useless. This doesn't feel like something to get upset about. Unless you work for the local authority or similar and then you really should know better.

You have a mole...someone has shopped you, one of your friends friends.

Yes, you are and it was on a private page so similar to sending an email which somebody then forwarded to the wrong person.
You didn't post it publicly or libel anyone.

The problem the school has is that the OP's personal data was used to contact a third party.

If the data was collected by a post screenshot and employer detail sent by a member of the group the school stored this data.

If the Head spotted her uniform or work ID or was informed by a member of the public the school stored her employers data.

Even if Head was so upset as to involve the police and the police gave the OP's details and advice to store the data the school still created a record. And police are not in a position to have advised the school to write a letter of complaint to an employer.

The data was used to write to the employer about an student's parent employee not just an employee posting what ever on SM.

So the school have to be able to prove the data collected was used within the policy.

Because there are literally dozens of other ways that he could have found out who she works for (most likely being from the person who was friends with the same person on facebook as the OP) than going onto the school database, the school database containing the work phone number of the OP (most parents just give their mobile number IME), that the head then phoned that work number, which wasn't the OP's actual work number so she didn't answer, but a reception, the reception then gave the details of the employer and the head then used that to send off the letter.

I have no idea about who or how to complain to - but just some solidarity that yes I’d find every single way I could to complain about him!!
This could help remove him
from him position….. 😬

If you'd read the follow-up posts you'd know the OP lives in a rural community in Scotland and the high school her child attends is the only one for probably hundreds of miles. There's not a selection of local schools to choose from like there is in a city or big town. Moving schools would necessitate moving house, changing jobs and uprooting the family from a community where they are otherwise happy.

Yep.

I think OP knows she might be on the receiving end of some legal action here. And she's looking for somehing to try and deflect the action coming her way.

I also think you're right that her profession, and her mentioning it as if it holds her in a higher status to determine his competence in the workplace, is what's landed her in this mess. And why he's responded, to her profession so to speak.

The head sounds like a bit of a dick to make this move in response, but that bodes even worse for OP. She chose to make those comments, and now he's not letting it go.

I'd take it as a warning shot too. At least.

Of course you can still be sued for libel posting on a private page! The minute you write something down about someone and publish it for others to read, you are putting it into the public domain. I'm not sure what the rules are in Scotland now, but I think it used to be in England that only 12 people needed to have seen the comment for it to be actionable. But someone with far more legal nous can correct me on that!

Obviously the person you've libelled would need to have a copy of what you've written to pursue action, but really there's no such thing as writing a private comment on SM.

The "private page" is irrelevant.

I’ve had a lot of data protection training.

i’m finding this quite hard to follow, sorry - it depends how they’ve got your info. If they’ve looked at an email address you’ve provided to the school, and worked it out from there, then I don’t think that’s ok because that’s not why the info was provided. Check the privacy policy. If they’ve got it because they’ve googled you and there is some reference to you working somewhere or your name is an author on a document, that might be harder to argue.

It was wrong to bring your child and their privacy into it.

The HT looks the most foolish here. It’s got nothing to do with the employer. In an ideal world the police would have a word about harassment but I know they don’t have time and resources.

You have no idea about data protection law. Someone’s name is personal data and using someone’s personal data without a legitimate purpose, is still a breach. There is no legitimate purpose here.

Why are you trying to defend the headteacher’s actions?

It rather proves your point that he's a useless HT, if nothing else.

It was probably whoever sent the screenshot that told him where you work.

Personal information should only be used for the reason it was provided, and it should only be accessed for a good reason. It’s like the posts you see about medical staff being nosy and looking at people’s records when they’ve no business to. If the HT was looking for any other reason than to talk to the parent about a school matter, then it’s wrong in my opinion.

But you don't know he got her work details from her son's school records! Isn't it far more likely the person who sent the screenshot to him told him? It's someone she's FB friends with after all, and for all we know, OP has her place of work on her FB bio or has previously posted about her job.

As for defending HT, I think his action was extreme but I also think OP isn't being completely honest about what she wrote about him. You don't escalate like to a parent's employer unless it was a full blown professional character assassination or it wasn't the first time she'd posted about him.

You’re trying to suggest that the headteacher went onto the school database, found the parent’s employment details from it by phoning a work landline number and asking reception what company the OP works for.

Why are you suggesting this happened when it seems extremely unlikely?

Honestly there's no point asking here as you'll get tonnes of misinformed and made up answers from people who have no clue. Part of following the reporting process is so that things can be investigated, do that even if you don't know for sure where he obtained the information.

Someone sent him screenshots, because the account is private, in the first place. Yes, that is a breach of Data Protection, because maybe you didn't want your employers know the schools your children attend.

Then the same would go for an email because it can also be forwarded?
For it to be libel, would the HT have to prove he is not useless or would she have to prove he is? All too subjective isn't it?

It doesn’t matter how they got them. You can’t just collect personal data and use it for whatever reason you want. That’s the whole point of data protection laws.

Why? Why would it be different to sending an email or having a conversation in the pub? Doesn't seem logical to me.

Can't you see that the way to resolve their slow responses and your uphill battle was not to vent on SM. It has just made matters worse, and their willingness to cooperate with you will have been compromised.

Time to be a bit more conciliatory- that may not come easy to you if you have a set to your jaw, but sometimes it is best to be the bigger person, admit you got it wrong and not inflame the situation further.

if you fight fire with fire, it will get you nowhere.