¶ … Values
The core values of St. Leo's are expressed on the university's website as excellence, community, respect, personal development, responsible stewardship and integrity. These all in some way inform how the university and its staff handle private data, but in particular the values of integrity, respect and responsible stewardship all apply. Respect for others is a core value that relates to private data, because to protect the privacy of the data is to respect the individual. This is something that should always be remembered -- that data represents individual people, and that is the reason why it is important to protect data.
The most important core value with respect to data privacy is integrity. The value of integrity stands for a pledge to be "honest, just and consistent in deed." This value implies that there should be a high value placed on integrity in terms of behavior -- deeds -- and that this integrity includes things like honesty. Integrity means that everybody should be treated well, and this treatment extends to the information that the school collects about each and every individual.
Respect as a core value is described as "fostering a commitment to excellence in our work" and the community with which we work expects nothing less. It is reasonable, therefore, that the people who give us privileged or private data receive our best efforts at all times with respect to the security of that data. We can do everything that is in our power, and demonstrate our commitment to their best interests, and in doing so we will, the entire St. Leo's community, be able to ensure that each and every individual can trust in our work, and know that we are doing everything we can for them. This demonstration of excellence comes with understanding the position of the other person, respecting that position, and ensuring that we safeguard their data as well as possible.
The school collects a range of data, about both students and staff members, as well as faculty. This information is sometimes mundane, and sometimes sensitive, but the school has a duty, or obligation, to respect the privacy of this data. There are several ways in which this manifests. First, it manifests in terms of the people who have access to this data only accessing the data for the reasons that it was collected....
Some of this information is person al in nature, and personal information is given to the school in confidence. The information is given by the person because the school needs it for some reason -- be this basic address information, academic records or even in some cases medical information. Whatever the information, the university and its staff are mandated by the need for integrity to safeguard this information carefully, because that is the expectation that the student has when he or she gives us this information.
When such an obligation is placed upon us, it thus becomes our duty as servants to ensure that the confidence in which that information was conveyed is not broken. That is our duty. If we cannot be trusted, if for some reason we access private information for purposes other than official duties, then that indicates a violation of trust. To violate trust is something that will damage the school, and it will damage the people involved. As a member of St. Leo's one is obligated to uphold the core value of integrity, and that means maintaining the trust and confidence that students or other stakeholders place in us when they provide private information.
In addition to accessing information when it is not needed to perform a task, the integrity aspect involves ensuring that there is a high level of security for the systems. There are a number of security best practices that need to be upheld in order to maintain the integrity for which we are known. For example, when we access information, even for the performance of official duties, we learn things, but that knowledge must be held in the strictest confidence. It is not possible to talk about people's private information with others, even sharing it in an informal or offhand way, without violating the core value of integrity. All information that was given in confidence can be transmitted by many different means, but no means of transmitting private information for anything other than official purposes would be upholding the integrity of yourself, or the school.
The school itself also has an obligation. The performance of tasks at St. Leo's is, per the core values, to be conducted at a very high level. Excellence is one of the core values, and it goes along with integrity. Security systems and protocols are put into place…
