Charities and Data Protection

I was listening to a radio 4 programme yesterday where they were discussing charities and their information collection processes and compliance with the Data Protection Act. This is a top topic currently because of the death of Olive Cooke.

So far all the reports indicate that none of the charities named in the Olive Cooke case have breached the Data Protection Act. During the radio interview, the presenter suggested that charities should be more considerate of their supporters and do more than was required by the DPA. I can understand this point of view having worked with lots of charities; they are a caring sector and try to do the best for their supporters. My concern is that there are lots of companies that are not complying with the basics of the DPA and yet we expect charities to go beyond what the law requires just because of the sector they work in.

The difficulty charities have (as well as other companies) is that as their long term supporters age, they may increase in vulnerability. A friends mother has dementia and my friend regularly goes through the post to see what letters have been received.  There are requests from charities that her mother has supported for a long time, ones that her mother has made regular donations to. My friend contacted the charities and explained that her mother was no longer able to deal with the correspondence coming through and could they not send information making further requests but she would continue to make the regular donations in line with her mother's wishes. All the charities contacted complied with the request promptly.

We need to take some responsibility for the information that we receive and telling organisations to stop sending it when we no longer require it. Organisations then need to take appropriate action to ensure that their records are updated.