Stage one - Can I share personal data with a law enforcement authority?
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1. Has a law enforcement authority asked you to share personal data with them?
Yes
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2. Are you a law enforcement authority?
No
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3. Has the law enforcement authority clearly explained what personal data they want you to share with them and why they need it?
Yes
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4. Has the law enforcement authority asked you to share personal data with them for law enforcement purposes?
Yes
5. Are you satisfied that sharing the personal data with the law enforcement authority would be necessary for their law enforcement purposes?
You should only share information that is necessary for the outlined law enforcement purposes. The law enforcement authority should be able to explain why they need the information and why they consider it necessary.
For it to be necessary sharing, it does not have to be absolutely essential, but it must be more than just useful and standard practice.
If they could achieve the same purpose without you sharing the information, or by you sharing less information, then it can’t be considered necessary.
For example:
- The police make a request to an employer for an employee's time records over the last three years, in order to investigate an alleged crime during a specific period. However, it is apparent that only the last month of time records is actually necessary for the purpose. Therefore the employer should provide the month of time records rather than three years.
- The parole board makes a request to an organisation for information about an individual. However, the data also contains third-party data, which is not necessary for this request’s purpose. Therefore, the organisation should only provide the parole board with the information about the individual, and it could redact the third-party data.