Posts by Anders Andersen

posted

62
Reaction to GDPR / field service letter
by sir82 in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
here is a thread on the new letter to be read to all congregations in all branches on adjustments in door to door work due to the gdpr:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6274619758608384/2019-boe-elders-letter-may-13-england-ireland-data-protection.

i have...connections....to a foreign language congregation in europe.
Anders Andersen

@smiddy3,
Watchtower would love to have zero liability, and with regards to GDPR they tried to establish that in court.
Unfortunately for them EU already ruled that even data collected on handwritten notes by unpaid volunteers is within scope of Watchtower's responsibility and liability, because Watchtower organizes that work, and the data is collected to further Watchtower's agenda.
The only thing that could get Watchtower off the hook if (when?) an individual publishers is caught illegally collecting or leaking data is Watchtower's effort to make sure no data is collected.
Of course individual publishers are also liable under GDPR.
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

The letter is a way for leadership to say that they told the congregations not to keep records. It is a legal maneuver. If anyone sues them the blame will fall on the publisher and not WT.
Individual publishers may indeed think they can continue making notes. But I think Watchtower is very much aware of the danger in that wrt GDPR.
Imagine a commercial enterprise that told their sales reps 'don't take any notes with private information of customers'. They tell the sales reps only once. Many sales reps continue to take notes anyway. One of the sales reps then loses his notes somewhere and they get out in the open. Or someone blows the whistle on the sales reps violating privacy laws.
Who is to blame? According to GDPR the commercial enterprise is probably judged as at fault. They should have done more to raise awareness and increase compliance with GDPR. I severely doubt that data protection authorities would rule that a single memo (that not even all employees were guaranteed to have received) would be enough to stop data collection after decades of telling employees to collect data.
Likewise I doubt Watchtower would be off the hook if they only write this single letter and it turns out many of their employees ignore that one memo.
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

In the Netherlands a big news site reported on this :-)
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

Loooooool
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

@corney, Nice summary.
Why do you have reservations about the judgement?
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

I'm probably a "big apostate" if I think these letters have something to do with the Trial In Finland
where the watchtower has lost ???
It's a direct result. The principles from the Finnish case apply in all of Europe.
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

Will there be any encouraging experiences?
Yes. First because half of them are probably made up anyway.
Second because they more often than not contain no information that points to a specific individual (e.g. 'Andre preached at school blabla' doesn't identify which of the millions of Andres in the world the story is about)
Third because those who relate their own experience on stage supposedly consent to themselves sharing personal data about themselves.
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

@blondie:
Apparantly Zimbabwe is a lawless hellhole when it comes to privacy and data protection. So it may very well be that WT just want to 'keep unity' and apply the no records policy everywhere?
There are no specific provisions for the collectors of personal data to obtain the prior approval of data subjects for the processing of their personal data.
https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/index.html?t=law&c=ZW
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

What's the difference between Zimbabwe and USA? They're both not part of EU, both not within GDPR jurisdiction....
62
2019 BOE Elders letter May 13 England - Ireland Data Protection
by Not_Culty in
1. watchtower
2. beliefs
https://tinyurl.com/y2bzncu9.
Anders Andersen

Awesome. Even more countries where field service will be even more useless than ever before!