The Covid diaries: Day 28 - RuPaul GIFs and GDPR

A daily fly-on-the-wall blog about running a legal business during the Covid-19 crisis.

By Dónall Breen - 24 April 

RuPaul GIFs and GDPR

Soon I will be logging onto some Friday evening beers with my fellow associates on Microsoft Teams. Earlier I had a few Zoom calls and later this weekend I will bounce between WhatsApp and Skype for catch-ups with my family. Even my elderly parents now send memes on WhatsApp. I thought lock-down was bad until my mother started incorrectly using RuPaul GIFs on the family chat.

If we thought our lives were online before, Covid has been a injection of steroids into that direction of travel.

So as I reflected on this, I thought no Friday would be complete without your friendly local lawyer shoehorning GDPR into the conversation - so here it goes.

As we increasingly start sharing more and more information, across multiple platforms, are we thinking enough about data protection?

This fun and exciting question was actually considered by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner who recently published guidance on why we should be careful using videoconferencing if personal data is being shared.

Sending sad cat memes to your other half when they don't bring you ice-cream? Who cares about who sees that [example drawn from real life]. But discussing an employee's medical file over a platform your company hasn't pen-tested for data security - a little dodgier.

As lawyers we were switched on to this a little earlier than most, as we have to be careful with confidential client documents. However, if you are dealing with sensitive information just consider whether the platform you are using is secure.

So, on that happy note I wish you all the best as we look towards another sunny weekend here in London. Stay safe, stay connected, always have GDPR on your mind.

If you would like to read our Covid diaries starting from day 1 please click here.