Dear All
Sorry to ask for more advice so soon after the last, but I’m having a bad
week. The following link hopefully will take you to an article on
silicon.com.
http://www.silicon.com/bin/bladerunner?
REQUNIQ=1033480592&REQSESS=1337615&4002REQEVENT=&REQINT1=55682&REQSTR1=News%
20Search
It says "Forty-two per cent of IT directors have broken the law by using
real customer data to test applications - a practice which is outlawed
under the terms of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
The law strictly prohibits companies from using customer data for any
purpose other than that for which it was collected, but with awareness of
the Act low among IT directors, many companies are leaving themselves open
to possible legal action."
I have 4 questions:
1. Is the above true? I've look at the legislation and the OIC legal
guidance and I can't find mention of test data usage. Am I blind?
2. Our notification covers 'Information and databank administration' which
includes the 'maintenance of information or databanks as a reference tool
or general resource'. We are continually creating/testing/verifying reports
which we run on the data we hold. We are continually improving our systems
in terms of data maintenance, security etc? Are we covered?
3. Without getting into a discussion about whether we need to use live data
for testing. Is the article stirring? Whilst we don’t specifically say to
our customers or in our notification we use live data for testing, we also
don’t say we print out the data or import into spreadsheets for specific
mailouts etc.
4. Am I worried over nothing?
Thanks as ever
Darren
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