DPC - Tusla Child and Family Agency
| DPC - Tusla Child and Family Agency | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Authority: | DPC (Ireland) |
| Jurisdiction: | Ireland |
| Relevant Law: | Article 32(1) GDPR Article 33(1) GDPR Article 58(2)(d) GDPR Article 58(2)(b) GDPR Article 58(2)(i) GDPR s143 Data Protection Act |
| Type: | Investigation |
| Outcome: | Violation Found |
| Started: | |
| Decided: | 17.05.2020 |
| Published: | 04.11.2020 |
| Fine: | 75000 EUR |
| Parties: | n/a |
| National Case Number/Name: | Tusla Child and Family Agency |
| European Case Law Identifier: | n/a |
| Appeal: | n/a |
| Original Language(s): | English |
| Original Source: | Irish Data Protection Commissioner (in EN) |
| Initial Contributor: | n/a |
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) fined Tusla (the Irish Child and Family Agency) €75000 for “unintentionally providing” the personal data of children to third parties in three separate incidents.
English Summary
Facts
The DPC commenced an inquiry after Tusla notified the DPC of three data breaches. The breaches all involved a failure to redact personal data when providing documents to third parties, including: -giving the father of two children in care their foster carer’s address -giving a person who was accused of child sexual abuse the address of the child who made the complaint and the telephone number of the child’s mother -giving the grandmother of a child in care the address and contact details of the child’s foster parents and the location of the child’s school.
Dispute
Did the breaches by Tusla infringe Articles 32-34 of the GDPR?
Holding
The DPC held that Tusla infringed Article 32(1) GDPR by failing to carry out measures that would have ensured an appropriate level of security of the data, such as redacting the names and contact details of the children. The DPC also held that the third breach also violated Article 33(1), because of a failure to notify the DPC without undue delay. Aside from the €75000 fine, the DPC also ordered Tusla to bring its processing operations into compliance with Article 32(1) and issued reprimands in respect of the infringements, pursuant to Articles 58(2)(b), (d), and (i) GDPR respectively.
Comment
Procedure for imposing fines: Under section 143 of the Ireland Data Protection Act 2018, a DPC decision to issue a fine to a controller or processor must be confirmed by the Circuit Court before the fine can be imposed. The DPC must apply to the Circuit Court to confirm its decision to impose a fine after the expiration of time period where the controller or processor can appeal the decision.
According to the DPC, this the first time it has applied to the Circuit Court to confirm a decision to fine since the entry into force of the GDPR. At the time of publishing this DPA decision, the Circuit Court confirmation was “unreported” and unavailable in an online format that the general public could access.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the English original. Please refer to the English original for more details.
