One of the people tasked with making sure data is handled properly said there needs be more awareness about the matter.
Carl Wiper is a senior policy officer at the Information Commissioner鈥檚 Office, which regulates the Data Protection Act.
Wiper was speaking at a Big Data and Internet of Things conference organised by law firm Weightmans in conjunction with 老九品茶Cloud and sponsored by the University of Liverpool.
He told a packed audience at the Martin Luther King Building, in Liverpool: 鈥淲e try and ensure that organisations that are handling personal data are doing it in the right way. If there are breaches we do have the power to take enforcement action.
鈥淥rganisations that are using personal data need to be as transparent as possible with those customers and they need to think of it from the customers鈥� point of view. If you told them everything you were doing would they think better or worse of you as an organisation? That鈥檚 an important key principle.
鈥淚 think people, all of us, are not sufficiently aware of how our data is being collected and use. All of us are reluctant to read lengthy terms and conditions. It would be wrong to assume people don鈥檛 really care about what happens to their personal data and are blas茅. There鈥檚 plenty of evidence to show that isn鈥檛 the case.
鈥淚t can be challenging to give people this information in a way that they can understand, especially as none of us wants to spend a long time reading terms and conditions.
鈥澛燣ast year Pharmacy2U Ltd was fined 拢130,000 by the ICO for selling on details of 20,000 customers to marketing companies without their consent.
鈥淭his illustrates the need for companies to follow basic data protection principles if they are trading in customer details,鈥澛爏aid Wiper.
鈥淐ompanies should consider whether they actually need to use data that identifies individuals in the initial 鈥榙iscovery鈥� phase of a big data project. Using anonymised data instead takes the processing out of the scope of data protection.
鈥淪ome of the breaches聽 that we have to investigate are caused by simple human error. I think a lot of it comes down to training.鈥�