Tuesday, 5th April, is International Golden Rule Day – ‘Do to others what you would like done to you’ – it runs through almost all religions and cultures. Jesus taught it in The Sermon on The Mount, echoing it from The Book of Leviticus written about 1450 B.C. We may be surprised that this saying is the cornerstone of all our policies. It is the essential basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted on 10th December, 1948, the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are entitled, which contains 30 articles relating to all of life. Article 12 concerns Data Protection, a concept we have heard a lot about in the last few years – how we hold, use, and store personal data. Article 30, the final article, says that nothing, no state or group or person has any right to destroy the rights and freedoms set out in the Declaration.
We can ask how this speaks to us, the Sisters of Mercy. In the last twenty years or so Ireland has become a leading hub for international IT companies with headquarters and operations based here – massive companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, PayPal – more than a thousand companies, employing thousands of Irish people and bringing thousands from overseas to work here.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner and Offices have never been busier because of the enormous transfer of personal data all over the world. This is regulated by EU’s GDPR guidelines. The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy is a very small player by comparison, but we play our part by being careful with our own data, even when we use it very simply like in the Noticeboard or in Annals.
Darragh O’Brien, an expert on all data related issues explains, ‘The processing of info for domestic use – for your own personal or household use – is outside the scope of the legislation, but once you move into an organised public sharing of info, even if you are not a school or business etc. you are in that grey area where you could actually fall under the scope of the legislation and all that comes with it. So ask, ‘Is this going to be distressing for anybody?’ Would I like if it was being said about me?’ ‘Is it true?’ ‘Is it harmful or hurtful to anybody?’
In these very troubled and troubling times, when the basic rights of nations and of people, of women and children, are being trampled on, and when we feel we can do so little, we can remember,
‘Treat others and the Planet as you would like to be treated’
Sr. Mary Coyle
South Central Province
