Standards provider, BSI, has produced an online tool to help organisations manage personal information without breaching data protection laws.
BSI, the company which develops standards and certifies product quality, last week launched “BSI Data Protection Online”. It can be used by organisations of any size, and contains a reference library of guidance, and a framework for information management.
In a BSI survey of companies and organisations in May, almost one in five admitted to having unwittingly breached the Data Protection Act 1998.
Data protection specialist, Tom Morrison, associate at Rollits, said: “For those organisations who know that they have a problem but do not know the size and shape of the problem then this tool could be of benefit.
“A number of tools are already available to assist data protection officers, including several which have been published by the information commissioner’s office and are freely available. The BSI had been working for some time on its data protection standard prior to publication and there are other standards out there, such as in relation to information security.
“Without some kind of roadmap or tool—such as BSI’s new online tool—it can be difficult for data protection officers to know where to start.”