Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable person. It is information that is directly about someone, or traceable to someone. This definition is closely related to the AVG law, which requires that you cannot just collect and use personal data.
What are personal data?
Examples of personal data
Personal data exists when data relates to an individual. It is most obvious that this would be, for example, a name, address or date of birth. But an identity can also be traced with less obvious data, such as by linking a location and IP address. You hear it all: you quickly collect that data, especially if you offer a digital product. The AVG law requires that you handle this data carefully to protect your customers’ privacy. If data is leaked, you are required to report it as soon as possible.
If you collect personal data, pay attention to these things:
- Do not use more personal data than necessary
- Make sure no one in your company can simply access data
- Do not keep data longer than necessary
- The AVG requires you to regularly investigate the risks of data processing in the company
How do you protect personal data?
According to the AVG law, you must be able to justify exactly why you use personal data. At Brthrs, we do this, for example, by entering into processor agreements with all the external services we use. Think Google Analytics for statistics, Intercom for support and Amazon AWS for data storage. This processor agreement describes, for example, the purpose of the processing, as well as the location of the data and security measures. Want to know more about measures to protect personal data or the AVG law? Feel free to send us a message!
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This is Robert, director of Brthrs. Do you have a question, a challenge, an idea … He loves to hear it!