SAR - edited information

[Absoluteidiot2022]

If a SAR is made and the information that’s disclosed has clearly been edited ( time stamped) AFTER the request was made and for no obvious reason ( ie not redacting info re other people etc) is this acceptable?

trying to be vague to avoid being identifiable - but an example would be a company email sent over a year ago - now showing as edited this week right before the information should be disclosed.

many thanks

I’m fairly sure they have to send the original email with redactions and it would be reasonable for you to ask for email of x date unedited as the one sent was edited on x date.

Has it been redacted as it contains third party or sensitive info?

It will depend entirely what the edit is. Your legal entitlement is to the personal information, not the original format. So they could retype the information omitting anything out of scope or that needed to be excluded such as third party data.

So it's hard to say from what you've said, but you can go back and ask for clarification. If you're not happy with their response you escalate to their DPO if they have one, and last resort ICO.