Deputy 'shocked' to discover States holding his data

A Guernsey politician says he was "shocked and concerned" to learn a States committee had a collection of some of his social media posts as well as emails about him.

Deputy Rob Curgenven made the discovery after submitting a subject access request (SAR) to Home Affairs (HA) - an SAR allows someone to request the data held on them by an organisation.

Curgenven said questions needed to be asked about how the material was put together and whether there were other "secret dossiers" on other people.

HA president Deputy Marc Leadbeater said it did not mean a civil servant had spent time searching through Curgenven's social media and that any screenshots had been sent to HA by "various individuals".

In a statement, Leadbeater added: "We did not have a civil servant spending their time searching through Deputy Curgenven's social media activity and taking screenshots of posts."

As part of the released bundle of documents provided to the BBC by Curgenven, there were emails about his attempt to join the Committee for Home Affairs.

He was unsuccessful in that bid and was beaten by former vice president of HA Simon Vermeulen.

The bundle also included a position paper explaining he should be removed from the police complaints engagement group.

Last year, Curgenven was removed from a committee looking at how the police complaints commission operated.

Leadbeater said the decision to remove Curgenven had been made due to the confidential information the board handled.

In a statement to the BBC, Curgenven said: "In many democratic jurisdictions, longstanding constitutional conventions and safeguards exist to ensure that elected politicians, as well as members of the public, are not subjected to surveillance without due process and authorisation at the very highest level.

"Questions must now be asked to get clarity as to whether any such authorisation was sought in this case; whether specific deputies or citizens were targeted and why, or whether the committee has been engaged in wider surveillance of elected representatives or the public."

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