As identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world, it is important that you take care to protect all of the data held by your business, including that of your employees and your clients. There is a legal requirement for data protection in the UK that you will need to comply with, which applies to:

…data about living, identified or identifiable individuals and includes information such as names and addresses, bank details, and opinions expressed about an individual.

Data Protection Act 1998

The Data Protection Act will also guide you on issues such as when it is acceptable to provide any personal data that is requested from you, and the rights of individuals whose data you hold.

Marketing

The use of personal data in direct marketing strategies is essential, but there are rules that govern how you can go about this. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 set out rules on how direct electronic marketing (telephone or email) can be carried out. The main compliances marketing departments need to adhere to are that agents must identity themselves when they are contacting individuals or organisations, and provide contact information so that the recipient can return the communication, which should be a postal or email address, or a toll free telephone number.

Ecommerce

If you are running a website based business and want customers to be able to pay or provide sensitive personal information online, then you must ensure you have adequate website security in place, such as up to date encryption software. You will also need to ensure that records of payments and transactions are kept in a secure physical location, such as a locked and alarmed storage or office space.

Employee Records

Make sure you store your employee records separately from your main filing, and restrict access to authorised personal only. Keep these records locked and secure, and avoid leaving sensitive files out on your desk when you are not in the room. If you have to send any important employee data through the post (such as sick records or notification of termination of employment) then use recorded postal services to ensure that it is delivered directly to the correct person.

Hope that helps to secure and take steps to protect your business data.

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