Personal Data is data that uniquely identifies a living person (see here). Confidential data is data, documents, spreadsheets etc. that if they became public would cause the University (or other person or organisation) significant financial or reputational loss.
If you need to send Personal Data or confidential data to someone else or another organisation you should make sure you are authorised by you supervisor or line manager.
Data could be sent by email, on a CD, DVD or USB stick (by post), by file transfer or uploaded to a web site.
You must ensure that this data is properly protected on its journey. This means either you encrypt the data or it’s automatically encrypted. Files sent using some file transfer methods or uploaded to some web sites is automatically encrypted. If you are in ANY doubt please ask us for help.
Personal Data or confidential data should be encrypted during transit. The University supplies encryption software to do this on University computers but there is also other software available. The software is free from www.7-zip.org for anyone to use.
If you send encrypted data to someone they need a password to access it and have to use the same encryption software at their end. If the recipient is unable to install the software at their end you should ask them what software they can use. This might mean the recipient has to ask their IT people to install 7-Zip for them or failing that you might have to obtain a copy of the software that they can use (which might mean buying this software).
You should choose an encryption password that meets the University Password Policy. Make sure you communicate the password by a different method than you send the file e.g. if you email the file tell the recipient the password by phone (don’t email the password as well). Similarly don’t post the password if you post the CD/DVD/USB stick.
There are some instructions about how to use the 7-Zip encryption software here which you can also give to the your recipient.
We would be happy to help you with any stage of this process – so please get in touch here.