What is my personal information?
Personal information is information about you. It can be your name, address or telephone number. It can also be the type of job you do, the things you buy and the place you went to school.
Why is managing my personal information important?
We all give our personal information to different organisations to allow us to do everyday things. For example, we give our credit card numbers when we do our internet shopping, we provide our health details to insurance companies and we give personal information in exchange for supermarket loyalty points.
Organisations that hold your personal information must use it fairly, keep it secure, make sure the information is accurate and keep it up to date, and we have the right to expect this from them.
Although the collection and use of personal information has many benefits if it is not handled properly it can cause problems. If personal information is incorrect, inadequate or out of date, it could lead to people being unfairly refused jobs, housing, benefits, credit or a place at college.
With this in mind, you should always think carefully before supplying your personal information. Always ask why an organisation is requesting it, as you may not need to supply it.
What are my rights?
The Data Protection Act allows you to ask to see information held about you (by sending a 'subject access request') and get it corrected if it is wrong. The Act also gives you the right to stop your personal information being used for unwanted marketing. You can read full details of your rights, including instructions on how to make make a subject access request.
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations give you the right to stop electronic direct marketing messages including phone calls, faxes, emails and texts.
If you think that an organisation has breached these pieces of legislation, you can complain to the ICO.
Protecting your personal information
Your personal information is valuable, so you should treat it as you would any other valuable item. With crimes like identity theft on the rise, it is even more important to safeguard your personal information. Criminals can use your personal details to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards and get state benefits in your name.
You can take these simple steps to help safeguard your information:
- Store any documents carrying any personal details in a safe place.
- Shed or destroy all documents containing any personal details before throwing them away.
- Ask the Post Office for advice on secure postage if you have to post any personal documents.
- Limit the number of documents containing personal details which you carry around on a daily basis.
- Check your bank and credit card statements carefully for unfamiliar transactions.
- Use different passwords and PINs for different accounts.
- Be careful when using public computers to access your personal information.
- Check your credit file regularly for any suspicious applications
- Always think about who you are giving information to and why they would need it. Be cautious!
- Protect your home computer with anti-virus, firewall and anti-spam software before going online.
- When you move house, redirect all your mail and inform your bank, utilities companies and other organisations of your new address.
You can read more about your rights and your personal information in the data protection section and in the personal information toolkit.