Your office provides a secure storage system for documentation and a secure online system that can only be accessed via a login name and password. You have just completed a property appraisal late one afternoon and you do not want to return to the office to file paperwork or enter data into your office system. You decide to leave the documents in your car overnight, and to upload files from home. Unfortunately, overnight your car is stolen, along with the documents. To make matters worse, you also forgot to upload the appraisal documents remotely. Instead, you have left the digital documents on the desktop of your laptop which has then been used by your teenage son for his schoolwork. He has deleted one of the documents and accidentally attached one of them to a school assignment which he has then sent to his teacher.

Analyse this situation from the perspective of the privacy legislation which applies to documents and client confidentiality. Include information about what should have happened in this situation. Explain the importance of maintaining documentation from a property appraisal after it has been completed.