Data Protection obligations

Recent research conducted for the Information Commissioner’s Office reveals that 78 percent of small businesses are “unaware that they are required to keep customer information accurate and up to date”.

Frankly, their ignorance is not surprising, when you consider how much documentation they have had to to plough through to understand what the Data Protection Act is all about. (Visit ico.gov.uk to see what I mean.)

Yet, as always, ignorance is no defence for non-compliance and, apart from exempt organisations, failure to register (cost £35) is a criminal offence which can result in a fine of up to £5,000.

Fortunately, the Commissioner’s Office has twigged that small businesses need help, so it has produced a brief guide to the subject for SMEs. Although helpful, it contains worrying caveats like, “This list does not include all the information that is covered by the Act. For a complete definition, please see our Legal Guidance document.”

This kind of thing, while backside-covering, does make life difficult for entrepreneurs who usually have other priorities for their time.

One thing that bugged me throughout the Guide, and the many Information Commissioner Office web pages that I visited, was the assumption that the reader is supposed to know what constitutes ‘personal information’.

The Guide itself only hints at the answer with, “Broadly … information that relates to living individuals which is held on computer. For example, this may include information such as name, address, date of birth … from which the individual can be identified.”

A more complete and helpful answer is in an eight-point questionnaire contained in a 22-page Acrobat document or as a web page.

At least if you start there, you’ll know whether the information you handle is subject to the Act and whether you even need to worry about all the other stuff.

David Tebbutt is an award-winning columnist and feature writer who specialises on the subject of using software and technology to increase business productivity. He's an analyst with Freeform Dynamics but, in previous lives, wrote for Director magazine, Real Business and was also editor of Personal Computer World. http://freeformdynamics.com