My employer won’t delete my private photos

[Guest]

I’ve recenrly been dismissed from my role and have entered into a legal battle with my employer.

I had a call with her a few days ago to discuss the possibility of a settlement agreement to stop me taking court action. It didn’t go well... she said how my personal text messages were backed up onto my laptop and she also mentioned photos.

This made me panic and i realised once once I was off the call, my iPhone and MacBook were synched so they’ll have seen all my personal photos.

I emailed her to explain that I would like her to ensure the personal photos were deleted and that I hadn’t realised they had synced to my Mac. I explained that I had been taken highly private photos to monitor my weight loss progress. I said I was emotional etc following my dismissal meeting and didn’t take as much time as I should have to delete personal info from the laptop.

(P.s. recently lost over 3 stone!!)

she has refused - she said she will delete all the content from the laptop once we have settled our matter.

The photos of me are front and side shots on a weekly basis of me naked. I had gained a bit of weight when pregnant so have a proper mummy tummy and wanted to see the progress of my body change, especially my stomach pouch.

I feel so violated that they have went throigh my messages and photos and photos and I don’t know what to do.

[Kati]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

tagging [MENTION=51026]Ula[/MENTION] [MENTION=26290]mariefab[/MENTION] xx

[Guest]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

tagging @Ula @mariefab xx

thank you

[ULA]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

Before I can help please can you provide me with some further details.

Were the iPhone and MacBook provided to you by the company in order to carry out your role?

If so what was the company policy in regard to the personal use of such equipment? There may be a clause in the policy which allows the company to access your work account/equipment and anything contained therein.

[Guest]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

Before I can help please can you provide me with some further details.

Were the iPhone and MacBook provided to you by the company in order to carry out your role?

If so what was the company policy in regard to the personal use of such equipment? There may be a clause in the policy which allows the company to access your work account/equipment and anything contained therein.

Yes they were provided by work, for work. However we have no policies - for anything. No handbook, no IT usage policy. I only have my contract which is 2 pages and makes no mention of monitoring etc.

The company are very very laid back. I was disciplined a while ago and asked for copies of this disciplinary procedures and they don’t have anything.

[ULA]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

Although not good practice from the company's perspective if they do not have a policy regarding the permitted use of devices provided by them then this does help.

Your company will have to abide by the Data Protection Act (DPA) which requires that sensitive personal information, of which I would class these photos as such, should only be kept for as long as necessary.

Bearing in mind you have indicated that you are currently taking your employer to Court then this may be why they are trying to "hold" this over you.

However, would something of this nature have any bearing on the matter for which you have a dispute with your ex-employer? If not I would suggest that you formally write to them requesting that under the DPA these photos are sensitive personal information which they can only hold for as long as necessary and since they are not relevant to the dispute and you are no longer an employee, you state that it is not necessary for the company to keep them and request they are deleted and you are provided confirmation that they have done so.

If they do agree to this request and you wish further confirmation that this has happened you can do a Subject Access Request (SAR) at a cost of up to £10 requesting details of what is held by the company about you. Details linked below:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations...ccess-request/

[Guest]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

Although not good practice from the company's perspective if they do not have a policy regarding the permitted use of devices provided by them then this does help.

Your company will have to abide by the Data Protection Act (DPA) which requires that sensitive personal information, of which I would class these photos as such, should only be kept for as long as necessary.

Bearing in mind you have indicated that you are currently taking your employer to Court then this may be why they are trying to "hold" this over you.

However, would something of this nature have any bearing on the matter for which you have a dispute with your ex-employer? If not I would suggest that you formally write to them requesting that under the DPA these photos are sensitive personal information which they can only hold for as long as necessary and since they are not relevant to the dispute and you are no longer an employee, you state that it is not necessary for the company to keep them and request they are deleted and you are provided confirmation that they have done so.

If they do agree to this request and you wish further confirmation that this has happened you can do a Subject Access Request (SAR) at a cost of up to £10 requesting details of what is held by the company about you. Details linked below:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations...ccess-request/

I'm not sure what relevance it would have to the ongoing dispute - the photos etc. aren't relevant and I'm taking them to tribunal for sex discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

I've already emailed and asked her to remove them because they are private photos but I haven't detailed anything about the DPA. She emailed me back and refused - she has said she won't delete anything until I have signed their settlement agreement.


Do you think I should send a more formal letter?

[ULA]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

It sounds like that by not responding to a request to delete the photos it could add to your claim in regard to vicitimisation.

As they are not material to the case then there is no reason, except to force you to sign a settlement agreement which may be on less favourable terms to you, why they should not agree to a request to delete the photo? I would therefore suggest a more formal letter with reference to the Data Protection Act being sent and requesting confirmation they have complied within 7 days would be the next stage.

[Diana M]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

I’ve recenrly been dismissed from my role and have entered into a legal battle with my employer.

. . . The photos of me are front and side shots on a weekly basis of me naked. I had gained a bit of weight when pregnant so have a proper mummy tummy and wanted to see the progress of my body change, especially my stomach pouch.

I'm not sure what relevance it would have to the ongoing dispute - the photos etc. aren't relevant and I'm taking them to tribunal for sex discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

I'm also not sure what relevance the photos would have to your legal case (employment law is not my area of knowledge) but do you feel you have been discriminated against, harassed and victimised due to your pregnancy and subsequent maternity leave etc?

Was everything fine in the workplace until you became pregnant and possibly took time off work?

Have you got legal representation for your Employment Tribunal because sometimes it makes sense to call a lawyer for initial advice.

Are/were you in a job where you might have been a member of a Union which could support you through this?

(Incidentally congratulations on losing three stone!)

Di

[Guest]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

I'm also not sure what relevance the photos would have to your legal case (employment law is not my area of knowledge) but do you feel you have been discriminated against, harassed and victimised due to your pregnancy and subsequent maternity leave etc?

Was everything fine in the workplace until you became pregnant and possibly took time off work?

Have you got legal representation for your Employment Tribunal because sometimes it makes sense to call a lawyer for initial advice.

Are/were you in a job where you might have been a member of a Union which could support you through this?

(Incidentally congratulations on losing three stone!)

Di

It wasn't relating at all the maternity leave or pregnancy - it was relating to discrimination on the basis of my gender (only female in a team of 9 men), where I was issued with a written warning without any kind of process being followed (no investigation, no hearing etc) and the written warning also discriminated against me. I then raised a grievance and appealed the written warning.

They've subsequently dismissed me for poor fit.

- - - Updated - - -

It sounds like that by not responding to a request to delete the photos it could add to your claim in regard to vicitimisation.

As they are not material to the case then there is no reason, except to force you to sign a settlement agreement which may be on less favourable terms to you, why they should not agree to a request to delete the photo? I would therefore suggest a more formal letter with reference to the Data Protection Act being sent and requesting confirmation they have complied within 7 days would be the next stage.

My solicitor is going to get back to me today so it might be that he can include it in his letter as I don't want to have any more dealings with them now.

[ULA]

Re: My employer won’t delete my private photos

If you have a solicitor dealing with your Employment Tribunal claim then I would suggest that you discuss with him what has happened in regard to the personal photos. I am sure if he thinks it appropriate to add into any correspondence he is sending then he will do so.

Also if you have retained the services of a solicitor then it would be best that any dealings with the company are now directed through him.

[Amethyst]

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