Data Protection - 9 Basic Tips for Business Owners

PUBLISHED: 28th January 2015

We thought that we would share some basic data protection tips with those of you who did not see our tweets on International Data Protection Day.

Failure to handle data responsibly with due regard to your legal obligations could have serious consequences for your business, and could lead to fines and other penalties.

Tip #1 - identify where personal data enters your business and check that you collect and process it legitimately;

Tip #2 - review your data security today and diary regular data security audits;

Tip #3 - everyone will suffer a data breach or leak at some point; train your people about what to do when it happens;

Tip #4 - purge old personal data that you don't use and will never need; it causes you unnecessary risk;

Tip #5 - review any outsourcing of processing of personal data, you remain responsible for processing on your behalf;

Tip #6 - if you transfer personal data outside of the EEA or EU-approved countries comply with data transfer rules;

Tip #7 - before you use personal data in direct marketing, know the specific rules that govern use of that data;

Tip #8 - don't monitor employees without telling them how and why you do so, and what you monitor; and

Tip #9 - take great care with sensitive personal data (e.g. medical data); more responsibilities attach to it than other data.