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Withy King reports... Rogues & Knaves

Creative Bath brings you the latest technology and media bulletin from our sponsors, Withy King Solicitors.

The Information Commissioner was heard on Radio 5 last week discussing the serious problem of personal data being illegally traded. He referred to the 'Rogues' who sell personal data for profit and the 'Knaves' who are duped into selling it to them and suggested that such a serious problem is in danger of being overshadowed by recent 'hacking' allegations.

Your business needs to be very careful to ensure that it does not act in breach of an individual's privacy and personal information. Recent events have shown that no organisation is immune from falling foul of the law!

All public and private organisations are legally obliged to protect any personal information they hold, and may be required to register with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Most businesses handle personal data and if you do, you have a number of legal obligations to protect that information. 'Personal data' is data which relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data (i.e. a name and address). Such data must be dealt with in a particular way and failure to do so may amount to a criminal offence.

So, here are our 'top tips' for ensuring compliance:

    -> Appoint someone to be responsible for compliance;

    -> Check whether you need to register with the ICO;

    -> Audit your use of personal data;

    -> Check compliance with the data protection principles;

    -> Have a written data protection policy;

    -> Ensure data processors engaged by you comply with security measures.

Ensuring compliance is not easy but it's essential that you get it right.  Demonstrating to the ICO that you have taken every effort to ensure compliance by implementing some basic protections will count in your favour should there be an inadvertent breach.

Karen Thomas is a key member of the Dispute Resolution team at Withy King and has significant expertise in most aspects of commercial litigation. You can contact Karen on 01225 425731 or email karen.thomas@withyking.co.uk.

Posted by:

Cedric Sureshkumar

Sector:

Digital

Tags:

privacy, security, Withy_King