Firms sold workers secret data

There have been a number of headlines this week about a Droitwich consulting company that has allegedly collected and provided information about job applicants. It seems that a number of construction companies who subscribed to the 'service' would provide the company with descriptions of employees such as, 'ex-shop steward' in return for information about people they planned to interview.
Read the full news story here

Suggestions for use in class Every GCSE and AS course requires students to be familiar with the DPA. Students could be given the questions below as a homework task to provide them with some contextual knowledge. Questions for students 1. In no more than two sentences, explain the purpose of the Data Protection Act. 2. The Information Commissioner is said to be investigating the company named in the news story. Who is the current Information Commissioner and what is his role? 3. With reference to the news story, outline what the company in question has allegedly done. 4. The Information Commissioner said that the company had committed a "serious breach of the Data Protection Act". What do you think he meant by this statement? 5. Information such as 'ex-shop steward' would be classed as sensitive data. a) Explain what is meant by sensitive data b) Explain why 'ex-shop steward' would be classed as sensitive data 6. If the owner of the firm is found to be guilty of the charges what punishment might he face?

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