Consent Where consent is the basis for provision of personal data (e.g. data required to join sports team/ after-school activity/or optional school activity) the consent must be a freely-given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes. Each school will require a clear, affirmative action e.g. ticking of a box/signing a document, to indicate consent. Consent can be withdrawn by data subjects in these situations
To ensure that the school’s practices are open and transparent and to obtain data fairly the data subject must, at the time the personal data is being collected, be made aware of:
the name of the data controller (i.e. School BoM)
the purpose/rationale for collecting the data and any secondary uses of their personal data which might not be obvious to them
the persons or categories of persons to whom the data may be disclosed e.g.
DES
other third parties operating in the education and welfare sphere e.g. NCSE, TÚSLA, NEPS, SESS, the HSE, TUSLA, An Garda Síochána
other third parties with whom the School contracts, such as cloud-based school administration software companies, accountants, insurance companies, lawyers, etc.
whether replies to questions asked are obligatory and the consequences of not providing replies to those questions
the existence of the right to access their personal data
the right to rectify their data if inaccurate or processed unfairly
any other information which is relevant so that processing may be fair and to ensure that the data subject has all the information that is necessary to facilitate their awareness of how their data will be processed
Where you use application forms or standard documentation in school for enrolment or other purposes, you should explain your purposes/uses etc. clearly on such forms or documentation
No age limit is associated with consent. However, it is important that the data subject appreciates the nature and effect of such consent. Therefore, different ages might be set for different types of consent. Where a person is unlikely to be able to appreciate the nature or effect of consent, by reason of physical or mental incapacity or age, then a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, brother, sister or guardian may give consent on behalf of the data subject. These are the only circumstances in which a third party may give consent on behalf of a data subject
Fair Obtaining: Test Yourself
When people are giving you information, you should be able to answer YES to the following questions:-
do they know what information you will keep about them?
do they know the purpose for which you keep and use it?
do they know the people or bodies to whom you disclose or pass it?
In general, the fair obtaining principle requires that every individual about whom information is collected for holding will be aware of what is happening