Don’t forget about data protection!

January 16th 2025

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is encouraging those launching new business ventures in 2025 to think about data protection compliance from the very beginning. 

As more and more business is conducted electronically, it is particularly important for owners and managers to ensure that personal data provided by customers, suppliers, employees and other third parties is only collected, stored and used in accordance with the data protection legislation. 

Businesses must explain to data subjects (i.e. people whose personal data they collect) how their data will be used, whether it will be shared with anyone else and how long it will be kept for. This is normally done by means of a privacy policy and/or privacy notice. There are particular requirements applying to the use of personal data for direct marketing purposes and businesses will need to familiarise themselves with these.  

Personal data must be kept securely and businesses should have processes in place to deal with personal data breaches, for example where data is disclosed to an unauthorised person as a result of a cyber attack.

In a blog post on its website, the ICO provides links to a number of useful resources for those new to data protection compliance, including a privacy notice generator, ‘how to’ videos and a data protection fee self-assessment tool. 

 

The contents of this article are a general guide only at the date of publication. It is not comprehensive, and it does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be sought in relation to the particular facts of a given situation.

 

Making sure you have the appropriate measures and practices in place from the outset will give your small business a head start and ensure you’re compliant with data privacy laws whilst showing your customers, suppliers, and any others that you deal with, that you are a brand they can trust.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2025/01/new-year-new-start-ups-get-data-privacy-right-from-the-start/