We’ve had a flurry of requests for support for subject access requests in the last few weeks. This is because of the redundancies being made by organisations and changing job market. Don’t think that only large organisations get Subject Access Requests, we have recently helped an organisation with only one employee to respond to a Subject Access Request. The most recent ones have been slightly larger organisations and there has been a common theme [...]
There is a limited time period to respond to a subject access request. How long depends on a couple of factors. Let's start at the beginning. When you receive a subject access request, you need to be able to verify the identity of the person making the request. You can view my previous blog about verifying their identity here. You cannot hold up verifying the individual's identify to delay a response. Frequently an individual [...]
There has been a recent news story about a man making subject access requests in the name of his girlfriend (with her knowledge) to see how much information he could obtain. On the basis of his research 1 in four companies gave him information on the basis of the information he had provided. This comes down to poor verification processes in place at the organisations before they give the information out. So here are [...]
Another week, another data subject access request or SAR. We were contacted this week by an individual who wanted to know if an organisation had complied with their obligations. That's a bit unusual as its usually organisations contacting us. On this occasion this individual had asked for their parents care records from a care agency. The information had been provided but there was no explanation about the content. Care agencies are likely to receive [...]
What is a Subject Access Request (SAR) or a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR)? This is the right of an individual to see any information held about them by an organisation. Someone can make a request by any method they choose, including verbally. This is creating some challenges as most organisations are struggling to put a process in place to recognise verbal requests. A friend of mine made a verbal request to a local [...]