Posted: Wednesday 30 November 2011
Stonemasons, litter bins & self-esteem.
By Austin Flynn
In one of my earlier blogs (4 November 2011) I suggested that the Information Commissioner would not be impressed by Oliver Letwin’s lame excuse that the information he dumped in litter bins in St James’s Park was not classified. That has, not surprisingly, turned out to be the case, and if you would like to see an example of the kind of rather embarrassing undertaking that has to be signed following a data protection breach, go to: http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/taking_action/dp_pecr.aspx and look at 15 November 2011. Not Mr Letwin’s finest hour.
You will also see a selection of other such undertakings. There’s a steady stream of them and perhaps the most noticeable points are that (i) they are given by a variety of people and businesses, from both the public and private sectors and including self-employed individuals; and (ii) most of them seem to be cases of human error, rather than malicious actions by hackers. Lack of encryption seems to be a common theme too, although the need to encrypt digital data has been so well-known for so long that it is surprising that it is so often still a factor in breaches of the Data Protection Act.
On a completely different note, I had a very interesting conversation this morning with a successful entrepreneur based in the South West of England. I had never met him before and we were chatting about what each of us does for a living. When I explained that I provide commercial legal advice, predominantly to SMEs and owner-managed businesses, he said “So you’re helping to get the economy going again.” I laughed and said that that was very kind of him. Having been a lawyer for over 20 years, I’ve heard pretty much every lawyer joke and every anti-lawyer comment there is, and it was therefore a refreshing change to hear someone say something positive about my line of work. I suppose it goes back to the comments in my blog from last week where I was told that I sell protection, peace of mind, problem-solving and certainty/clarity in business dealings. It’s amazing what a difference a fortnight can make to a man’s self-esteem.
It reminds me of a story I heard about two stonemasons, each carving identical designs into blocks of stone during the construction of a mediaeval cathedral. They were both asked by the Prior what they were doing. The first one said, rather grumpily, that he was carving a piece of stone. The second one said, with a twinkle in his eye, that he was building a cathedral.
It’s all in the eye of the beholder, but I do believe that aiming to "build a cathedral" (or "get the economy going again") rather than "drafting a share sale agreement" probably leads to a better result.
Incidentally, my favourite lawyer joke is:
Q. What’s the definition of "utter waste"?
A. A coach load of lawyers going over a cliff with two empty seats on board.
