Data Protection Act – What you need to know

Any company or professional that needs to store personal data from clients in order to perform business activities is classified as a “data controller” thus they must comply with the Data Protection Act 1988. And this is the case for most companies in the UK who process customer data.

The Act consists of 8 principals. According to the Data Protection Act 1988 data must be:

• Fair and lawfully processed – must gain permission from the individual you are taking the data from – be honest.
• Processed for limited purposes – the collected information must be held for used for appropriate purposes. Only use the data for the reasons you’ve promised.
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive – All data requested must be necessary to complete the task – nothing outside of the concern of the business. No irrelevant data.
• Accurate and up to date – out of date information could result in error.
• Not kept for longer than necessary – securely destroy any information that is no longer need to avoid leakage.
• Processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights – these rights include the right to access a copy of their information, a right to object to the processing of their data, a right to prevent processing for direct marketing, a right to have inaccurate data rectified and a claim to compensation for damage caused by a breach of the act.
• Secure – If a company is holding data on behalf of a third party, it is their duty to ensure it is kept secure.
• Not transferred to countries without adequate protection – Data relating to third parties must not be stored overseas unless adequate safe harbouring laws are met.

To discuss your records management needs with an industry expert today, please get in contact.

Information Overload

Did you know that every day we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data – and that today around 90% of the data in the entire world was created in the last two years alone?!

The amount of data that is being created means that information management is all the more important. That is why Cube RMS has created simple and secure documentstorage solutions taking the stress out of archiving.

Cube provides a discrete and efficient service causing minimal disruption to business operations. We will look after your unique document needs for the whole of the life cycle, from collecting your files, storing them in our specialist facilities, creating easy tracking and retrieval and document disposal upon request.

Get in contact today to speak to one of our expert consultants to discuss your unique document storage needs or call 0800 027 2668.

Document Destruction

In recent years regulators have imposed more stringent duties on companies regarding proper management of personal data and records. Companies must take steps to prevent the ad hoc disposal of records and ensure that final disposal of records is in accordance with agreed policies.
 
The methods of final disposal vary:

Destruction of physical, paper records may require cross-cut shredding and/or burning in a secure environment. The following methods are recommended as minimum requirements by The National Archives:

Non-sensitive (unclassified)
Ordinary rubbish bins should only be used for clearly ‘public domain’ material. Although
FOIA will greatly increase the extent of releasable information; much will still contain personal data. Records may consequently require tearing into small pieces and placed in rubbish bins/sacks for removal by an approved disposal firm.

Restricted
Waste should be strip-shredded and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm.

Confidential
Waste should be crosscut-shredded and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm. The material should be pulped or burnt.

Secret and top secret
Waste should be crosscut-shredded or disintegrated using a grille size no larger than 6mm and placed in paper rubbish sacks for collection by an approved disposal firm. The material should be burnt.

Destruction is also particularly important in the electronic environment where there might be uncontrolled copying of information. Deletion of electronic data should ultimately mean the complete destruction of the electronic record (and is the electronic equivalent of secure disposal of physical records). This means rendering them non-recoverable even using forensic data recovery techniques.

At Cube RMS we offer a secure and confidential record shredding and destruction service. To find out more please get in contact today.

21st Century Storage

For many businesses off site document storage has become a necessity and we would like to highlight just why you should take is seriously too.

Your business documents constitute a valuable asset to your business - you need to protect them.

Should disaster strike would your confidential and valuable business data survive? We would like to help you protect these assets with our off-site document storage facility.

Does your place of work have the necessary precautions to safeguard against robbery? At Cube RMS our facility offers remote entrance gates and key pad access to all storage areas, 24 hours digitally monitored and recorded CCTV, on call duty managers, and high tech intruder alerts.

If it were to suffer from a fire, would your precious business data go up in smoke? The Cube RMS facility has a 4 hour rated “Category 1” deed store, smoke detection to BS5839 and fire alarms.

Or what if your business place were to flood? Cube RMS can offer temperature and humidity controlled storage environments. These will ensure your documents will not depreciate in any way.

Take your security seriously and let Cube RMS take responsibility for all your document storage needs. Get in contact now to discuss your storage needs.