Data Protection and remote working

Most of us are familiar with working from home and know that the Party continues to work effectively this way. Operating from home and remotely brings about new challenges and it is important to be aware of your data protection obligations.

Using Zoom 

Zoom is a great way to keep in contact within your local party, however it does have security flaws and it is important that you take proactive steps to make sure that any meetings you hold are held securely.

You can do this by following these steps:

• Opt out of all data regions apart from Europe
• Set a password for all meetings
• Enable the waiting room function so guests cannot join the meeting before you as the host
• Lock the meeting once all participants have joined
• If you need to record the meeting, you must alert people to this. When selecting the record function, Zoom will also identify this at the start and end of the recording.
• Do not keep recordings and transcripts of meetings unless you absolutely have to and do not keep them for longer than necessary - recordings are still people's personal data and must be handled appropriately and securely.

Full details on how to do these things and general guidance on using Zoom can be found here.

**Please note** The data regions opt-out function is only available if you have a paid-for account. 

You should not publish details of your Zoom meeting on the internet or on open social media pages.

If you do not follow these steps you are putting your meeting at high risk of being disrupted.

Handling Data

As always, it is important to ensure that personal data is held securely. The current situation may mean that you are handling more personal data at home. Any hard copy personal data stored at home should be kept securely in a cupboard or drawer separately from personal documents. You must ensure that any hard copy data is destroyed securely using a crosscut shredder or a confidential waste service, once it is no longer needed.

More data security advice can be found here.