Are you collecting more data than you need?

How often when completing an online form, or downloading a new app, do you think, “why do they need this information?”

I often do. I get frustrated when I can’t fathom out why certain fields are mandatory, like phone number or date of birth. Okay, so I work in data protection. I’m highly tuned to being affronted by this stuff, but I doubt I’m alone.

Sometimes we’re forced to grit our teeth and soldier on (standing in the rain, desperately trying to download yet another parking app, forced to hand over our vital details).

But in other situations we can choose not to engage with companies because they ask for too much of our personal information, or immediately delete an app for the same reason. Alternatively, we may be tempted to provide bogus details, where we can’t see any reasonable purpose for the request (or suspect a phone number will purely be used to badger us).

Faced with yet another data-hungry form this week, I began thinking (again) about the benefits of minimising the personal information collected.

Yes, it’s a core data protection principle under GDPR / UK GDPR, meaning organisations are legally required to collect personal data, which is relevant, adequate and limited to what’s necessary for the purpose(s) it’s being used for. But it’s also a sound approach for other reasons….

Here are five more reasons for streamlining data collection…

1. Build trust

If people think you’re collecting more information than necessary, they may be sceptical, not trust you, and decide to disengage. People are more likely to put their trust in organisations who collect data responsibly.

2. Reduce data breach risks

Minimising personal data mitigates the severity of any impact if you suffer a data breach. This could not only reduce the risk for those affected but lessen the negative impact on your organisation. It could even be the difference between a reportable breach and one that’s unlikely to pose a risk. A data breach of purely names and email addresses, won’t routinely be as serious as a breach which also includes telephone numbers, dates of birth, postal addresses etc.

3. Improve accuracy

Data minimisation can improve the quality of your data, reducing the risk of holding outdated and inaccurate information. This in turn helps to meet another data protection principle; personal data must be accurate and kept up to date.

4. Prevent other uses

If you collect more personal details than you need, you’re leaving the door open to employees (perhaps unwittingly) deciding to use it for other, unintended or unauthorised purposes. Or a purpose which you haven’t been transparent about and may lead to complaints or regulatory action. And yes, this helps to meet another principle: purpose limitation.

5. Save time and complexity of privacy rights requests

Minimising the data held, can make the process of handling privacy rights requests more efficient. For example, there’s less data to sift through when responding to a DSAR, or less data to erase. It also saves awkward questions like, “why do you have this information?”

These points all apply more broadly than simply to information collected via online forms or apps. The principle of data minimisation applies to all the personal data an organisation collects, uses and stores. But as a starter for ten? Why not streamline those data collection forms, they’re a window into your attitude to people’s information, and what your potential customers see first.