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All businesses need an external facing Privacy Notice, aka Privacy Policy, if collecting and handling people’s personal information.
Data protection law tells us we must provide people with easily accessible and specific privacy information when we collect their data. This guide sets out the key considerations and core requirements our Privacy Notices.
One of the stated aims of the UK Government’s Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is to support small businesses and remove unnecessary bureaucracy.
As context, there are 5.6m businesses in UK of which SMEs (less than 250 employees) represents 99% of the total. According to IAPP research approximately 32,000 organisations in UK have a registered DPO. It’s right, therefore, to focus on SMEs.
But how onerous is small business data protection now? Arguably, the answer is, not as onerous as you might think. We’ve created a top 10 checklist for start-ups and small businesses to help you decide what you should be concerned with:
Yes. Pretty much any business processing personal data for commercial purposes need to worry about data protection. (It does not apply to purely ‘personal or household activity’). Having said that, the law and regulatory advice focuses on taking a ‘proportionate’ approach. There’s no one size fits all and it will depend on the risk appetite of your organisation.
Probably not. If the answer to these three questions is no, you don’t need a DPO…
Even if you don’t need a DPO, it’s wise to nominate someone in your organisation as a data protection lead. This does not need to be a full-time role. Alternatively, you can outsource this activity to someone/a company who can provide the support on a part-time basis.
Maybe. There’s no escaping the fact RoPAs are challenging documents to complete and can absorb a huge amount of time. Companies with more than 250 employees must always keep a RoPA – that’s just under 8,000 businesses in UK.
If you have less than 250 employees, you don’t need a RoPA if the following applies:
The debate start when you consider what constitutes a ‘risk to the rights and freedom of the data subject’. It’s worth considering the type of data you handle rather than the volumes to help you decide whether to complete a RoPA. As a start up, you may not need a RoPA as defined in the legislation. However, having a record of what information is processed, for what purpose and under what lawful basis is a good idea even if the ICO RoPA form is not.
There are changes afoot with regards to the RoPA under UK data reform plans, but a record of your activities may still be necessary, just not as current prescribed.
Almost certainly YES. The ICO asks all businesses that process personal data to pay the Data Protection Fee. This is used to fund the ICO and its activities. This isn’t onerous. In fact, most small businesses will only have to pay £40 (or £35 with a direct debit). And that’s before you’ve considered whether you’re exempt. Not for profit status is a possible example.
Yes. A privacy notice is a foundational piece of your data protection work. Any organisation which processes personal data needs to set out what data they are processing and how they are processing it as well as the data subject’s rights. The ICO’s checklist provides very clear guidance for what must be in a notice and what might be in a notice.
Yes again. If you have a website, assume you need a cookie notice. Even if all you’re doing is using cookies to manage the performance of your website, a cookie notice is required. This does not need to cost money. You can get free software from the major privacy software providers. They have simple step by step set up guides. There is really no excuse not to have a cookie notice.
Yes, but make it proportionate. In a nutshell, accountability means ‘evidencing your activities’. Keep a record of what you do, why you’re doing it and your decision-making. It also means making sure you have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to protect personal data. Have staff been adequately trained in data protection? Do we have clear guidelines and/or policies to help them?
Yes. Every individual has clear rights and irrespective of the size of the organisation you need to fulfil these requests.
These rights include right of access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, the right to object and the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing.
Not all of these might apply to a small business but it’s important to decide how to recognise and respond to these requests from individuals.
Yes. Cyber Essentials was designed for SMEs. Arguably it’s the absolute minimum for any business. It does cost money but not a lot. Gaining the Cyber Essentials certification (if self-certified) costs £300. The five technical controls are:
Hopefully no! If you and your suppliers are only operating in UK and Europe stop reading now. However, if any data is exported to a third country (such as USA, South Africa or India), there’s no escaping the fact that international data transfers can be painful to work through.
When EU-US Privacy Shield was invalidated in 2020 this caused significant problems for data transfers between US and EU/UK. At the time, Max Schrems’ advice was to only work with companies based in UK or Europe who are not exporting data to third countries. However, this isn’t always possible – just consider how many people use Google, Microsoft or Mailchimp.
Many, if not most, businesses will have dealings with these three and the reality is that you must accept they’re not going to change anything for you, or choose not to use them.
Many small and start-up businesses can get ready relatively quickly. The trick for small business data protection is to review your arrangements on a regular basis and be aware if any more complicated processing emerges. For instance, anything involving automated processing, special category data, AI or children’s data carries significant risk and should be treated with care.
There’s more helpful information available on the ICO’s Small Business Hub.
Let’s get back to basics. There are seven core principles which form the foundation of data protection law. Understanding and applying these principles is the cornerstone for good practice and key to complying with UK / EU GDPR.
Here’s our quick guide to the data protection principles.
This principle covers 3 key areas.
a) Lawfulness – We must identify an appropriate ‘lawful basis’ for collecting and using personal data. In fact, we need to decide on a lawful basis for each task we use personal data for, and make sure we fulfil the specific conditions for that lawful basis. There are 6 lawful bases to choose from.
We need to take special care and look to meet additional requirements when using what’s termed ‘special category’ data or data which relates to minors or vulnerable people.
We should also be sure not do anything which is likely to contravene any other laws.
b) Fairness – We must only use people’s data only in ways that are fair. Don’t process data in a way which might be unexpected, discriminatory or misleading. This means evaluating any adverse affects on individuals.
c) Transparency – We must be clear, open and honest with people about how we use their personal information. Tell people what we’re going to do with their personal information. Routinely this is achieved by providing relevant privacy information at the point data is collected, and by publishing a complete and up to date privacy notice and making this easy to find. Transparency requirements apply right from the start, when we collect or receive people’s data.
This is all about only using personal details in the ways we told people they’d be used for. We must be clear about what our purposes for processing are and specify them in the privacy information we provide to individuals.
Sometimes we might want to use personal data for a new purpose. We may have a clear legal obligation to do it, but if not we should check the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose(s) we had for that data. If not, then we may need to secure the individual’s consent before going ahead.
Remember, if we surprise people, they ‘ll be more likely to complain.
We must make sure the personal data we collect and use is:
We should take ‘all reasonable steps’ to make sure the personal data we gather and hold is accurate, up-to-date and not misleading.
It’s good practice to use data validation tools when data is captured or re-used. For example, validate email addresses are in the right format, or verify postal addresses when these are captured online.
If we identify any of the personal information we hold is incorrect or misleading, we should take steps to correct or delete it promptly.
Data accuracy can decline over time. For example, people change their email address, move house, get married or divorced, their needs and interests change. And of course some people on your database may pass away. So we need to consider ways to keep our data updated and cleansed.
Perhaps find ways to give people the opportunity to check and update their personal details?
Don’t be a hoarder! We must not keep personal data longer than necessary for the purposes we have specified.
Certain records need to be kept for a statutory length of time, such as employment data. But not all data processing has a statutory period. Where the retention period is not set by law, the organisation must set an appropriate data retention period for each purpose, which it can justify.
The ICO would expect us to have a data retention policy in place, with a schedule which states the standard retention period for each processing task. This is key step to making sure you can comply with this principle.
When the data is no longer necessary, we must destroy or anonymise it, unless there’s a compelling reason for us to keep it for longer. For example, when legal hold applies. For more information see our Data Retention Guidance.
This is the ‘integrity and confidentiality’ principle of the GDPR – often known as the security principle. This requires organisations to make sure we have appropriate security measures in place to protect the personal data we hold.
UK / EU GDPR talks about ‘appropriate technical and organisational measures’ (known as TOMs). These includes things like physical and technical security measures, conducting information security risk analyses, having information security policies & standards in place to guide our staff.
Our approach to security should be proportionate to the risks involves. The ICO advises us to consider available technology and the costs of implementation when deciding what measures to take.
Some of the basics include transferring data securely, storing it securely, restricting access to only those who need it and authenticating approved data users.
Cyber Essentials or Cyber Plus can be helpful as an assurance framework to carry out a review of your data security arrangements.
Controllers should consider information security standards when appointing and managing relationships with processors, i.e. service providers handling personal data on your behalf to provide their services. Are your processors securely handling their processing of the data you control? Carry out appropriate due diligence to make sure.
The accountability principle makes organisations responsible for complying with the UK / EU GDPR and says they must be able to evidence how they comply with the above principles.
This requires data governance across the organisation. Think of accountability as a collective responsibility, flowing from the Executive team and down through to the teams that process personal data.
To demonstrate how we comply, we need to have records in place. For many organisations this will include a Record of Processing Activities (RoPA).
The ICO provides a useful ‘Accountability Framework’ we can use to benchmark performance against their expectations.
In summary, identify the lawful bases you’re relying on and be fair and be open about what you do. Minimise the data you collect and make sure it remains accurate over time. Always keep it secure and don’t keep it for longer than you need it. Take care if you want to use personal data for a new purpose. Keep records and be ready to justify your approach. The ICO has published more detailed guidance on the seven principles.
The concept is nothing new, but the term Privacy Management Programme (PMP) has been flung into the spotlight by the UK Government’s plans to reform data laws.
In a nutshell, the Government plans to revise the current accountability framework, replacing existing obligations (some of which are mandatory) with a requirement to implement a PMP.
It’s argued the current legislative framework ‘may be generating a significant and disproportionate administrative burden’ because it sets out detailed requirements organisations need to satisfy in order to demonstrate compliance.
The idea is a new ‘risked-based accountability framework’ will be introduced, requiring organisations to implement a PMP, but allow flexibility to internally tailor the programme to suit the organisation’s specific processing activities.
A PMP is a structured framework which supports organisations to meet their legal compliance obligations, the expectations of customers and clients, fulfil privacy rights, mitigate the risks of a data breach – and so forth.
Such a programme should recognise the value in taking an all-encompassing, holistic approach to data protection and privacy; embedding data protection principles and the concept of privacy by design and default.
There are a number of PMP approaches and frameworks in existence. The UK Government has not yet elaborated on what they would expect a PMP to look like.
This top-level summary is broadly based on the IAPP’s Privacy Programme Management approach.
Organisations should develop and implement a suitable framework of management practices which make sure data is used properly and in line with organisational aims, laws and best practice. This should include adopting a privacy by design and by default approach; ensuring appropriate measures are in place to prevent unnecessary risks.
Achieving clear oversight of the data held and processed, including any suppliers used to support business activities. Developing risk assessment tools which help to identify privacy risks and manage them effectively (e.g. Privacy Impact Assessments / Data Protection Impact Assessments).
Mapping and maintaining an inventory of where personal data is, its purpose, how it is used and who it’s shared with.
Developing and implementing clear policies and procedures to guide staff and give them clear instructions about how personal data should be collected, used, stored, shared, protected and so on.
Making sure adequate and appropriate training is conducted to give staff the knowledge and understanding they need to protect and handle data lawfully and in line with organisational expectations in their day-to-day roles. Making sure people are aware of how their organisation expects them to behave.
Putting in place appropriate procedures to effectively and efficiently fulfil individual privacy rights requests, such as the right of access, erasure or objection.
Crucial to any PMP is protecting personal information. Working in conjunction with information security, a data protection by design approach would be expected – a proactive rather than reactive approach.
Creating and developing data incident procedures and plans. Having appropriate methods to assess risk and potential impact, as well as understanding breach notification requirements.
Last, but by no means least no PMP would be complete without a methodology for tracking and benchmarking the programme’s performance.
To many who’ve endeavoured to comply with the GDPR, all of the above will sound very familiar.
So, the Government isn’t proposing we do away with all the hard work already done. It’s planning a relaxation to some of the mandatory requirements; giving organisations more flexibility and control over how they implement certain elements of their programme.
On the one hand, this could be seen as a welcome move away from a ‘one-size fits all’ approach under UK GDPR, giving organisations more flexibility around how implement their privacy programmes to achieve desired outcomes.
On the other hand, there are fears the removal of mandatory requirements will lead to a watering down of the fundamental principle of accountability (a principle significantly bolstered under GDPR).
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