Jan 23, 2023

There is no doubt that we hold personal information on a staff member, specifically their name, amongst other things.  It seems only reasonable that we should then obtain the staff member’s consent to store this information.  A recent request from Education Queensland has asked us to implement an option for staff to give (or withhold) their consent regarding their personal information.   We believe this is relevant to all schools and so it is being implemented across the board.

 

Items for consent

When we were thinking about this we came up with a list of seven items that we should ask for consent:

1. Can we store your first name?
2. Can we store your surname?
3. Can we store your email address?
4. Can we store your mobile number?
5. Can we send you emails?
6. Can we send you SMS messages?
7. Can we record your activity while using SOBS?

The email address was interesting.  The email address is typically setup and controlled by the school, however the email often contains the first name and/or surname of the staff member.  We have included it for completeness.

 

Keeping it simple for staff

To help keep it simple for staff we are implementing two dialogs – the first is a simple  “Consent”,  “Do not consent”, “Configure your consent”

If you choose Consent or Do not consent there is nothing more to do.  If you choose the ‘Configure’ option, then the second dialog will appear.

Here the staff member can individual select exactly what they consent and don’t consent to.

 

Frequency

Naturally we would expect to answer the consent question when we first log into SOBS, and this is exactly what will happen.

Each staff member will also be asked at the beginning of each school year to repeat this consenting process, just in case things have changed.

 

Operational impact

These consent options will impact the operation of SOBS.

• Without the Audit option staff will not be allowed to login and use the online system.  However, they can still be a staff member, have room bookings in the system, and receive parent bookings without needing to login.
• Storing the mobile number and sending SMS messages – we already have a number of schools operating this way.
• Storing the email address and sending emails – this is not essential but it can be very handy with regard to recovering your password, and receiving reminders about bookings.
• Storing the surname – not essential, however in the parent booking application it may be necessary to replace the surname with the class name.
• Storing the first name – not essential.

 

Have we missed something?

Are there additional consent options you believe we should have?  Please drop us an email to support@sobs.com.au letting us know how we can improve this option.