New legislation changes in 2010 will see much tougher regulation of document storage and retention policies in accordance with data protection laws in the United Kingdom.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) are involved in two Government consultations which will see the introduction of new penalties, unlike any seen before, for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). Penalties being finalised include:
- Fines of up to £500,000 for contraventions of the DPA.
- Prison Sentences for deliberate or negligent customer data leaks within an organisation.
This places direct PERSONAL responsibility on many company directors and managers to ensure the proper retention and destruction of data. The Information Commissioners Office advises that as a Data Controller you:
“[…]must comply with the Act from the moment you obtain the data until the time when the data has been returned, deleted or destroyed. Your duties extend to the way you dispose of personal data when you no longer need to keep it – you must dispose of the data securely and in a way which does not prejudice the interests of the individuals concerned.”
These changes have created, now more than ever the necessity for companies to store, audit and destroy archives in a managed environment to avoid these hefty penalties. Combined with our 40% average annual savings and compliance with Data Protection Laws, storage of your archives with Secure Data Management has never been so beneficial.
