- Enforcing jurisdiction
- Malta · Geography does not establish applicable law.
- Confirmed applicable legislation
- Privacy topics
DPA case CPD/COMP/280/2023 – Complaint Upheld (Malta, 2023)
Privacy enforcement record
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A lecturer shared personal school materials with a student using their private email, exposing the student's email to others. The data protection authority upheld the student's complaint, emphasizing that personal email addresses must be protected. This case shows that organizations need to be careful when using personal emails for communication.
What happened
A lecturer sent personal school materials to a student using their private email, disclosing it to unauthorized individuals.
Who was affected
The student whose personal email address was shared without consent.
What the authority found
The data protection authority found that the lecturer's actions violated privacy rules by not safeguarding the student's personal data.
Why this matters
This ruling stresses the importance of protecting personal information in communications. Organizations should implement better practices to ensure privacy when using personal emails.
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A data subject filed a complaint with the Maltese DPA because a lecturer (working for the controller) sent personal school materials via the data subject's personal email address. The emails sent by the controller to the data subject included colleagues of the data subject in the "cc". Thus, the personal email address of the data subject was disclosed to unauthorized third parties. Because of this, the data subject requested the controller to use "bcc" when sending her personal emails. The controller stated that this was not possible because their way of communication was by group. The controller instead requested the data subject to provide them with an alternative email address. The DPA mentioned that a person's email address, that consists of one's first and surname, constitutes personal data according to Article 4(1) GDPR. Therefore, the controller is subject to Article 5(2) GDPR and has to demonstrate and be responsible for compliance with GDPR provisions. The controller has to ensure appropriate safeguards according to Article 5(1)(f) GDPR. This is further regulated in Article 32(1) GDPR. The controller did not prove that they implemented appropriate safeguarding measures, only saying that it is not possible. The DPA held that the controller's processing constitutes an infringement of Article 32 (1)(b) GDPR. Therefore, the DPA upheld the data subject's claim.
Outcome
Complaint Upheld
A data subject complaint that was upheld by the DPA.
Related Enforcement Actions (0)
No other enforcement actions found for DPA case CPD/COMP/280/2023 in MT
This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
Decision Date
24 July 2023
Authority
Information and Data Protection Commissioner
GDPRhub ID
gdprhub-6441About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. DPA case CPD/COMP/280/2023 - Malta (2023). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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