Sound Data Management Training

Data Protection¶

Data protection protects the rights of individuals over their personal information. The core of the Data Protection Act is a set of data protection principles. These state that personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and shall not be processed unless the subject gave their consent except under specific conditions (for sensitive personal data, there are further restrictions). In addition, personal data should be:

• obtained only for specified purposes, and should not be used for anything else;
• adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes (i.e. only the data that is required);
• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
• kept no longer than is necessary for the purposes;
• processed in accordance with the rights of the data subjects under the Act;
• protected from:
  • unauthorised or unlawful processing
  • and loss, destruction; or damage
• shall not be transferred outside the European Economic Area without similar protection being provided.

However, there is a specific exemption, for research which is not targeted at particular individuals and will not cause distress or damage to a data subject, which allows data may be processed for other purposes and held indefinitely.

right of access to personal data where the data is processed for research purposes and the results do not identify data subjects

JISC state:

Data controllers are required by the Act to process personal data only where they have a clear purpose for doing so, and then only as necessitated by that purpose. A data controller’s purpose for any personal data processing operation should thus be clearly set out in advance of the processing, and should be readily demonstrable to data subjects.

Further information:

• QMUL Academic Registry and Council Secretariat (ARCS) information on data protection
• JISC Data Protection Code of Practice for HE and FE with specific section on personal data in research
• Canterbury Christchurch University document on Data Protection in Research
• EU Data Protection Directive

The Act:

• Data Protection Act 1998