Increasingly, data controllers are becoming frustrated at the apparently endless reach of Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 ('DPAs') as a means for accessing company documentation and information. A typical fact pattern involves an aggrieved employee or customer seeking access to 'all documentation relating to me, including but not limited to all emails, memoranda and other internal correspondence, a copy of all minutes of meetings between X and Y and a copy of all other records leading up to the decision to dismiss me/refuse me credit etc'.
This article first appeared in Vol 7, Issue 2 of the Data Protection Ireland Journal and is reproduced with the kind permission of PDP Journals.
This article contains a general summary of developments and is not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should be obtained where appropriate.
