Legal Issues
Data Protection Principles
A data subject is the individual whose details an organisation holds. Personal data is information about a living individual who can be identified from it, such as a name, email address or photograph. Media producers collect, use and store personal data, so they must follow data protection principles. These do not stop data being collected; they set rules for doing it properly.
For example, an online youth magazine runs a photo competition and collects each entrant's name, email address and age to judge entries and send prizes. The entrant is the data subject and those details are personal data.
The principles
| Principle | What it means |
|---|---|
| Lawfulness, fairness and transparency | Data is processed lawfully and fairly, and people are clearly told what data is collected, how and why. |
| Purpose limitation | Information is only used for the reason it was gathered in the first place. |
| Data minimisation | Only the details that are actually required are collected, with nothing extra. |
| Accuracy | Data is correct and kept up to date. |
| Storage limitation | Data is not kept longer than is needed for its intended purpose. |
| Integrity and confidentiality | Data is kept correct and secure, protected from manipulation or hacking, and accessible only to authorised people. |
| Accountability | Someone formally takes responsibility for the data processing. |
What media producers must do
- Explain why they are collecting personal data.
- Process it fairly and lawfully, and only for the reason it was collected.
- Hold it securely to prevent hacking or accidental leaks.
- Not share it with another organisation without consent, or unless required by law.
The magazine should tell entrants that ages are only used to check prize eligibility, keep entries on a secure system, delete them after the competition, and name a member of staff responsible for looking after the data.
Practise this
OCR Creative iMedia · Legal Issues