How can I find out if old records have been accessed illegally by someone who works for an organisation?

[NotAllowedAccess]

I need to be vague about which organisation it is. Lets say it's something like the police, I imagine policies and procedures will be very similar.

I have reason to believe that someone who works for this organisation has accessed records about me in order to find things out. This would be historical (from over 20 years ago). The sole purpose is to find out information about me and my family. Things have been thrown out that they couldn't possibly know and given the line of work, I am suspicious they have used their position to look up if there are any records (which there will be). Drips of this information had then been passed on, which I have then been notified about.

I am fairly sure this is illegal? Would there be a way to find out for definite if this person has used their work to check me out?

I would start by contacting the organisation. Ask them to check who has looked at your records in the x months as you have reason to believe that y person has and not for legitimate reasons. Also that confidential info has been leaked.

Are you absolutely sure that the info has come from this person? If its NHS then its gross misconduct according to similar mn posts.

Realistically you are not going to be able to fund this out. The records may be electronic, paper or both. How on earth are they supposed to know who looked at them 20 years ago? Their employment records may not even go back that far. You're getting nowhere with this I'm afraid.

They didn't access them 20 years ago, the records are historic. They potentially have been accessed very recently by someone who works there.

Most places log searches. It would show who and when you had been searched for if it’s an electronic record. A similar thing happened to me and this is what I was told. I never found out the outcome though!

The info definitely came from the person who works there, they said things to my friend that they couldn't know about me. They have definitely been researching me and I can't figure out where from. Nothing comes up on Google. They have even managed to find my work address which has nothing to do with their work so god knows how that's been found. Information on a family member has been mentioned, of which there is no link online. I cannot see how this could possibly be known unless some serious digging through their work.

If it's NHS report to PALS. They will have a record of every person that has accesses your records and data. All access requests are logged and randomly audited monthly. It's a breach of confidentiality and the data protection act.

That does sound dodgy. If they searched electronically then there will be a record of it.

It's not NHS.

I don't want to say as this person has found a lot of stuff out about me that I can't figure out from where so I'm being careful what I say.

Can I report it to their work and it will be investigated? Would this person be informed?

If the search is recent, there should be an audit trial. Contact the Information Governance lead at the organisation.

Report it yes. They would have to investigate. And they probably would have to tell the person yes.

Ah 8 see, they recently accessed records that are 20 years old. Are these records electronic or paper?

The only.way to.find out would be to complain to their employer. They'll be able to find out if your records have been accessed

Are you sure your friend hasn't told them stuff ?

Are there reasons they would have accessed records that far back? I would imagine it wouldn't be the easiest thing to do for as far back as 20 years?

What sort of records have they looked at.is it someone you work with, there would be an electronic trail of what theyve looked up.