To be honest who would want to be a referee - rugby league supporters in general are terrible towards referees considering they are paid a lot less than their football counterparts. Whether they are good or crap somebody has to referee the game.

I'll emphasise the relevant bit again:



Why would the RFL suspend him for a breach if IT policy if he's supplied details because he knows where they live etc from social contact?

I would have thought that the most likely to be the case myself.

Data security is not solely restricted to technology based breaches.

At my company, data security comes under the IT policy but is not solely restricted to technology related breaches. In reality it is an Information Systems policy, rather than an Information Technology policy, but is nearly always named incorrectly, as I suspect it will be at the RFL.

The type of breach would come under the IT (IS) policy at my company.

I'm aware of the distinction, but the point is he's been suspended for alleged breach of IT (or data security etc) policy, not for supplying names and details because of social contact. If they've suspended him for the wrong reason he'll have them over a barrel.

Passing on the information [uis[/u the breach of policy. It doesnt really matter how he got the information, he broke the Data Protection Act by passing information about colleagues on to a third party without their permission. Under most circumstances it wouldnt matter (or be complained about) - I have passed on colleagues phone numbers to third parties without their permission - but obviously someone has complained about it on this occasion.

If he got the info from social contact then he isn't breaking anything, apart from his friend's trust. In that situation the RFL couldn't really do anything. The fact he's been suspended suggests he has used confidential details held by the RFL, hence my initial point about RFL data security, which you jumped on, but now seem to be agreeing with in some roundabout way.

Aussie ref Jason Robinson brought in to do Warrington v Catalans on Sky Saturday Night.

We have Ganson v Cas incidentally.

Is Robinson the ref for the WCC?

Edit: He is doing the WCC.

no it doesnt.

If I pass on one of colleages date of birth, for example, to a third party without thier permission I would be in breach of data protection - that is not confidential information held by my employer.

I think u r wrong there

Not necessarily true, it depends on the circumstances

No you wouldn't. The DPA wouldn't apply to you as an individual unless you had illegally obtained the information from a data controller such as your employer.

Agreed, which is why I said "could" be in trouble. Something our Stains friend is still completely ignoring.

You're just getting silly now.

it says on the BBC that

as I understand it then, the Prospect Union has been given personal details of referees (allegedly) by Silverwood. The RFL would be in breach of the DPA if he obtained these details from them somehow. Hence the investigation.

However, If he had them anyway and passed them on then he's just untrustworthy.

neither looks good for Mr Silverwood.

No DP issues for the RFL on the assumption RS obtained the info from the RFL's systems without their knowledge or consent. If so he has committed a criminal offence under s55 of the DPA.

I deal with the DPA as part of my current job and prior to that I worked for the regulator responsible for Data Protection so trust me based purely on what has been reported the RFL would be exceptionally unlikely to have contravned the Act.

Ok so what if the RFL email every official who has passed the RFL exam, everybody’s details which im sure some referees would take offence to young lads who have just passed there exam having there contact details.

it depends if there is a valid reason for referees having each others contact details.

Cant see someone who has just past there exam been involved in a super league game so no reason at all to have there details.

Have any of you lot ever kissed a girl!

does chat about the Data Protection Act not get your juices flowing Jukey??

Most senior referees also help with development mate, sadly the details of nearly every referee are very easy to get hold of not long after you start if you know where to look. It's neccessary too though, if every call between refs and touch judges went through the rfl it would take months to sort officials out. They can't even find the right people to give my work references down there. I think the ban is a bit harsh on Silverwood to be honest purely because of how easily the info could be obtained.