5-minute guide: Tax advisors and the Data Protection Act.
Accountingweb's tax editor, Nichola Ross Martin considers the Data Protection Act; "All bark and no bite?"
Data security seems to have been very low on parliament's list of priorities when it signed off the 1998 Data Protection Act. In fact, given the limited powers of the Information Commissioner, it is difficult to see what the Act practically achieves other than being another method of raising revenue for the government.
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Fines for beaches
Nicola,
Very good advice I am sure - as always.
What I cannot reconcile is that our security disposal supplier constantly tells us that for each single identiifable name and address that we dispose of in a non-secure manner we can be fined £5,000.
We are also urged to recycle telephone directories by simply putting them in a paper recycling bin - each directory, of course, contains thousands of identifiable names and addresses!! I have not been able to find any exemption for telephone directories.
Peter Lashmar
Lashmars
Peter
Who is this "security disposer"? Sounds like an advertising standards issue.
You can only be "fined" as in having to pay damages - if someone proves that you have lost their data and if they can prove loss. Also don' t forget that they have to fund the court action, so the chances of having to pay out anything are pretty remote unless you have really high profile clients!
In my humble opinion there should be whopping great fines, it would make us all (government dept included) take data security much more seriously.
I would guess that since our government likes the idea of ID cards etc and is not adverse to sending our data over the pond for upkeep this will never happen. Government departments it seems have the most to lose, in more ways than one!