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Getting personal

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27 September 2007 / Navdeep Gill
Issue: 7290 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Employees should be wary of storing too much personal information on work computers, says Navdeep Gill

Employees will need to consider how much personal use they make of their employers’ computer systems after the recent High Court case of PennWell Publishing (UK) Ltd v Isles and others [2007] EWHC 1570 (QB), [2007] All ER (D) 180 (Jun). It was held that an employee’s contacts kept on the employer’s computer system belonged to the employer and not the employee. This was despite the fact that some of the information included personal contacts of the employee and contacts that predated his employment.

PERSONAL CONTACTS

The case involved a journalist, Junior Isles, employed by PennWell, a media company organising conferences and exhibitions for the energy and power industry. Isles was employed by PennWell as a publisher and conference chairman. When Isles joined PennWell he brought with him a list of journalistic and personal contacts he had accumulated throughout his career. During his time at PennWell, Isles gradually transferred these contacts to PennWell’s system and maintained it on PennWell’s

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