Rights of Data Subjects

A data subject is a person whose personal data an organisation holds. Media producers collect personal data all the time, such as the names, ages and contact details of people appearing in a production, and data protection law gives those people rights over it.

The right to view data

Every data subject has the right to view the data held about them. This means a person can ask an organisation what personal data it holds about them and see that information. To make this possible, a media producer must keep personal data organised and somewhere it can be found quickly, and must deal properly with a request rather than ignoring it.

The right to have data corrected

Data subjects also have the right to have incorrect data about them corrected or updated. If a record says something wrong or out of date, the person can ask for it to be changed. The producer should check the request and update the data where it really is wrong.

These rights exist to protect individuals from misuse of their information and from the harm that inaccurate records can cause. A producer that refuses a correction can leave someone stuck with wrong records that follow them around.

For example, a local radio station runs a schools quiz and keeps each entrant's details in an online form: their name, school year and contact email. One entrant is down as Year 7 when she is actually in Year 9, so she is placed in the wrong prize category and sent questions meant for younger pupils. She asks to see the entry stored about her, spots the error and asks for it to be updated. The station checks her original form and corrects the record. Without that right, the wrong year group could have stayed on file and affected later competitions.