18 September
2002
Eversheds e80
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The e-news service from Eversheds - Business Lawyers in Europe
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IT Directors break the law
A recent survey by Compuware says that 42% of UK IT Directors
have broken
the law by using real customer data for test applications.
Subscribers to e80 will remember that the Data Protection
Act 1998 in the
UK prohibits companies from using personal data for any purpose other
than
that for which it was lawfully collected. For most companies that will
not include testing new IT systems. It seems that many companies use real
data simply because they don't think through the issues involved or
because it saves time.
In addition, and perhaps more of a concern, the survey
says that 13% of IT
Directors do not regard the Data Protection Act as within their area of
responsibility and a further 47% said that they were only "vaguely
familiar" with the legislation. It seems clear that given the increasing
likelihood of prosecution in the UK for directors in their personal
capacity, data protection needs to move up the corporate issues list.
Jonathan Armstrong
jonathanarmstrong@eversheds.com
Direct dial: 0115 841 7642
More contact details are at
http://www.eversheds.com/about/Offices/officeDetails.asp?idOffice=17
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