The Information Commissioner’s Office has written to you advising that you need to pay a fee and register with them.
They tell you that the data you hold and the way you handle it requires a registration with them.
You pay it, receive a digital certificate, see your business listed on their publicly available register – and then what?
The onus is on the business both to know if they need to register and what they need to protect their data.
This is the part I help businesses with.
- Is how they hold their data safe?
- How do they need to protect different data?
- Are they compliant in all areas?
- Are they doing all they need to under data protection to avoid issues later?
It’s a job for a specialist, just like accounting or building a house – you can do it yourself, but a specialist will dot every ‘i’ cross every ‘t’ to ensure you are compliant and safe.
Paying the fee doesn’t mean that you are covered, protected or certified. It’s not an insurance policy that you can turn to if you have a data breach. It just registers you with the ICO. It’s similar to car insurance – you pay for it and give all the information to get the certificate but if the information is false, then the policy is invalid.
Data protection needs a bit more than an ICO certificate such as:
- Privacy Notice
- Data Protection Policy
- Staff training / awareness
- Data security
Having an ICO registration is a start, but there are many more processes to ensure you are data compliant – but most importantly of all, that your customer data and their rights to privacy are adhered to.