The small town I live in is rife with (exaggerated) gossip.  Although local people know this, newcomers to the area may not initially realise that personal, confidential matters they discuss with work colleagues (some of whom should not be hearing about them) could well spread quickly around the town.

Over the past few weeks there have been breaches of confidentiality from organisations I have had dealings with or previously worked for.  This is not the first time such occurrences have happened to me over the past few years so, although not entirely surprised, I am very disappointed.  I have to add that nothing like this has happened in any of the places I have lived or worked in previously.

I have the right to expect that these organisations treat confidential information about me as just that, particularly when an important part of their role is to protect such information about individuals.

If certain of their employees are not fulfilling their contractual obligations with regard to confidentiality, then surely they should at the very least be retrained and reminded of their responsibilities in this area.  They should also be asked to consider the effect such breaches will have on someone’s day to day life as they can lead to eg more abuse on social media or even further attempts to cause serious harm.  Also, once the “information” becomes known publicly it cannot be retrieved or corrected.

I want to understand why these breaches occurred.  Also, an acknowledgement of responsibility for such breaches and an undertaking that action has been taken to ensure that they will not happen again would be a positive start to putting matters right.

When such serious lapses occur, it has been shown that acting proactively and quickly to resolve matters has a far better outcome for the organisation than waiting until it is forced to act.  The clock is ticking . . .