SAR for staff emails

[ajg]

Hi, I've had my first parent SAR for effectively any staff emails containing a student name. I've figured out how to extract all this to a PST but for the date range they've requested it's around 500 emails. They have to be checked/redacted etc but how have people been subsequently giving this information to parents? Have you printed them all off or given them an electronic copy? If electronic how would they easily be able to open them?

[JRA]

On my end I've (in overview) gone through Google Vault and exported the mailbox (probably got to the stage you've gotten to) and then just gone through them. All of them. And skim-read the lot. In one case skim-read over 20,000 emails.

 

I'll copy the ones that are relevant into another mailbox and then we used to print these. Sometimes hundreds of pages. These then needed sections redacting by the Head's secretary and then we'd plonk the whole phone-directory sized ream of paper right down in front of the enquirer.

 

Nowadays though the admin team have some sort of redacting plugin thing they use. I forget what it is but no printing for me anymore.

 

I *think* I am right in saying though that whatever SAR request you get, you are under no obligation to provide it in any specific format. So the world is your oyster in that respect; whatever ends up being most convenient.

 

I just can't conceive of any better method of doing it. The law obliges us so we have to of course, but there's no search terms I can enter which are "emails a bit like bullying and for this kid" I can only do "firstname surname bullying" and then go from there.

Edited November 10, 2020 by JRA

[psydii]

We use Microsoft Advanced e-Discovery. This allows us to review and tag files and messages, breaking the job down and keeping it all electronic. At the moment their online redaction tools seem to be broken, so once we have filtered out all irelevant duplicate, or privaleged documents we run an export job which gives us a folder full of files.

 

We then print each file to PDF, and review and redact with the full Acrobat DC Pro.

 

All the way through the process there are checks with the DPO to ensure we are correctly filtering and redacting.

 

Then all the redacted documents are reviewed internally, before being presented to the DPO for final review and sign-off.

 

The resultant document set is then zipped up with a password and shared with the subject. We typically text the password and email the link.

[blueday]

The latest guidance from the ICO says:

 

"In what format should we provide the information?

How you do this, and the format you use, depends upon how the requester submitted their request (ie electronically or otherwise):

• If the individual submitted the SAR electronically (eg by email or via social media), you must provide a copy in a commonly used electronic format. You may choose the format, unless the requester makes a reasonable request for you to provide it in another commonly used format (electronic or otherwise).
  
• If the individual submitted the SAR by other means (eg by letter or verbally), you can provide a copy in any commonly used format (electronic or otherwise), unless the requester makes a reasonable request for you to provide it in another commonly used format.
  

 

The GDPR does not define a “commonly used electronic format”. However, this means the format in which you supply the requester with their personal data. When determining what format to use, you should consider both the circumstances of the particular request and whether the individual has the ability to access the data you provide in that format."

[psydii]

Indeed. Zip and PDF are pretty universal. Even iOS can open then without third party tools.

 

PDF can also be converted to ink-on-paper with relative ease, with two manilla envelopes taking the place of the zip file if needed.

[garbage46]

Print to PDF.

Redaction in Adobe Acrobat.

Save as PDF.

Email/Share encrypted zipped PDF.

[Bev]

On my end I've (in overview) gone through Google Vault and exported the mailbox (probably got to the stage you've gotten to) and then just gone through them. All of them. And skim-read the lot. In one case skim-read over 20,000 emails.

 

I'll copy the ones that are relevant into another mailbox and then we used to print these. Sometimes hundreds of pages. These then needed sections redacting by the Head's secretary and then we'd plonk the whole phone-directory sized ream of paper right down in front of the enquirer.

 

Nowadays though the admin team have some sort of redacting plugin thing they use. I forget what it is but no printing for me anymore.

 

I *think* I am right in saying though that whatever SAR request you get, you are under no obligation to provide it in any specific format. So the world is your oyster in that respect; whatever ends up being most convenient.

 

I just can't conceive of any better method of doing it. The law obliges us so we have to of course, but there's no search terms I can enter which are "emails a bit like bullying and for this kid" I can only do "firstname surname bullying" and then go from there.

 

What are you using to open the PST files? I've tried opening in Outlook and printing but I feel like there must be a better way.

[ajg]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Stupidly I didn't realise you can just bulk select emails and print to one big PDF! We have Adobe Acrobat Pro so can easily redact with that.

@Bev you should just be able to open a PST from the outlook client, File - Open & Export - Open Outlook Data File

[JRA]

What are you using to open the PST files? I've tried opening in Outlook and printing but I feel like there must be a better way.

Sorry, late back to the party but I much prefer Thunderbird for it. Worth a look if Outlook rubs you up the wrong way for SARs.

[Bev]

Is there a way to print/export all the emails from multiple folders using Thunderbird? I have managed to import them all but they are in 50 seperate folders.

[JRA]

Is there a way to print/export all the emails from multiple folders using Thunderbird? I have managed to import them all but they are in 50 seperate folders.

 

There is yes, at least from memory yes OR you can stick all the folders into another folder higher up. I think you need the "import export tools" for Thunderbird to do so from memory, which is very intuitive to work with and can spit them out as plan text files for readability and with a little .html index at the top for folder browsing. You'll see all that anyways it's quite lovely.

 

I *would* give you a little better on that but annoyingly lost my Ubuntu machine to a power cut since November and not set Thunderbird up again for the old SAR business sorry. :/

[Bev]

There is yes, at least from memory yes OR you can stick all the folders into another folder higher up. I think you need the "import export tools" for Thunderbird to do so from memory, which is very intuitive to work with and can spit them out as plan text files for readability and with a little .html index at the top for folder browsing. You'll see all that anyways it's quite lovely.

 

I *would* give you a little better on that but annoyingly lost my Ubuntu machine to a power cut since November and not set Thunderbird up again for the old SAR business sorry. :/

 

 

 

Thank you, I have found the import/export tools and have managed to export them all to PDF. I will take a look at the plain text and see if that's any easier.