Is this legal? Email issues

[Totallywisebutter]

Here goes, a co worker has been sending me emails to my personal email address regarding service users. I would have thought this is a breach of data protection, any advice would be appreciated, shall I report this to my line manager?

Yes.

What kind of information has he been referring to in these emails?
Why does he have your personal email?

It may, of course, be that this co-worker has both your work and personal emails and his email client (Outlook or whatever) is automatically offering your personal email for autocomplete. So it could be an innocent mistake. I would start by asking your co-worker if they realise they are sending work-related emails to your personal email address.

Whether it is a breach of data protection depends on the content of the emails.

well, if you have autofill in your work emails, and if you have an email history of more than one email for a person, this can happen without the sender even being aware of it

I have my teams personal emails as I have emailed them before. Namely, when they were furloughed and they opted for updates to be sent to their private email instead of logging onto their laptops.

HR also used their private email for the same reason.

I had to be very careful, once they returned, to make sure when I typed their name, that I selected their work email. Their personal one still pops up now.

I would personally check with the colleague why they have your personal email and why they are using it and go from there.

Definitely a GDPR breach and it's your duty to report it asap.

I'd speak to your colleague first covid be a mistake they you can notify line manager of together rather than simply reporting

Yeah, this might be the most diplomatic approach. You definitely need to let your organisation know there's been a breach and cover your own arse, but letting the colleague have ownership of the mistake is better for them.

Is there an IT or gdpr policy which covers email addresses and personal data?

Obviously depends on the protocols in place in your workplace.
If there's a blanket rule that work emails can't go to private email addresses then obviously you need to follow up as to why it's happening.

It really depends on what they’ve sent, whether they have permission and whether your personal email is with an encrypted service. If you think it’s not right personally I’d just contact your colleague and tell them and delete them all. Unless it’s very sensitive and you’re worried the information could have been read by others.

I would talk to the colleague because of autofill which can lead to innocent mistakes. They can delete your private email from the autofill by hovering over it when autofilling and pressing delete. Delete the emails from your personal account. Tell you line manager what you’ve done. If they keep doing it then report.

It's legal but bad practice. Personal data that company related should ideally stay within the boundaries of company email systems.

• have you told him he's emailing the wrong address?
• if yes, escalate to his manager and the company DPO, you'll find their details in your companies privacy policy