family finding for Lifelong Links

[Durham FGC]

Hi

Just reaching out to see how others are trying to find family members/friends etc when information is not available direct from the family or YP, or from our internal systems or Facebook.

i know that some local authorities use TraceGenie as main search engine and when i have suggested this to our Data Protection team/information governance, they have come back saying that there is the issue of conducting surveillance and that his type of searching can fall under RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers) as it is the council undertaking this work. We have been asked if any other LA's using this/or similar searching can share their DPIA or any assessment they undertook or risks they considered before introducing this process.

any help/signposting etc greatly appreciated

[Arist_FRG]

Hi
I don't think TraceGenie would fall under RIPA as it is a database of public domain documents - birth certs, electrol roll details etc. (so it's not technically surveillance). It would however fall under GDPR when you process that data and record it on the system, but this should be covered by the work of Lifelong Links. Might be worth double-checking with them. Certainly if people from local authorities have an insight - and shareable DPIAs - that would be very helpful.