Personal Details

[dheuhff]

Does anyone know how long MBS are legally allowed to keep anyones personal details?

thankyou

[ForumFriend]

All businesses and organisations are covered by the Data Protection Act.  The following is a resume of what it covers:

The Data Protection Act 1998 governs the use of personal information through the eight data protection principles.   

These principles require that personal information is:

processed fairly and lawfully
processed for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and not further processed in any way that is incompatible with the original purpose
adequate, relevant and not excessive
accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
kept for no longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it is being used
processed in line with the rights of individuals
kept secure with appropriate technical and organisational measures taken to protect the information
not transferred outside the European Economic Area (the European Union member states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) unless there is adequate protection for the personal information being transferred

Therefore, if Platte/MBS are complying (as, by law, they should) with the Data Protection Act, they should have destroyed the details of any individuals with whom they no longer have dealings - and that would include you.  If they are holding such details now, they are doing so unlawfully. 

[jonlewi5]

and you can legaly get all the details they hold on you from them, i DO believe it is legal for them to charge for this data (admin fee's etc) but i do believe there is a limit on what they can charge, and i do know its a small amount.
Im not sure what they actualy charge could be though.

jon

[ijawkuk]

The process involved is called a Subject Access Rights Notice, pursuant to s7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.  The Act prescribes that you MUST give the Data Controller (in this case Micro Billing Systems) enough information to accurately identify you as the Data Subject (in this case you yourself) and that the Data Controller may charge a fee of up to £10 per request.     You can betcha MBS will happily charge you £10.   Under the provisions of the act, the Data Controller MUST comply with the request and there is a time limit within which they MUST comply.     There is good guidance on the requests on the ICO website.    In the event they don't comply you can make a referral to the Information Commissioner - but his most likely response is to tell you to obtain a Court Order - which you would do through a County Court - guidance on that is available at the ICO website if its needed.