Data Protection Act - asking for and storing info for use within support group

[senmerrygoround]

I've been on the ICO website and still unsure of the rules around this, and hope someone here can help

I'm in a FB support group and almost on a daily basis, posters ask for recommendations on services. I thought it may be helpful if I invited group members to send me their recommendations which I could collate in a spreadsheet.

This spreadsheet would only be accessed by myself in response to a specific enquiry.

Would I be falling foul of any DPA/information legislation?

If you only hold the recommendations and don't include anything that would identify who made them you are definitely safe.

If you hold information identifying the individual who made each recommendation you should, as a matter of good practice, ensure that the information is kept safe from unauthorised access, tell people what information you hold relating to them if they ask and correct any errors as soon as they are pointed out to you.

Whether or not you need to register with the ICO as a data controller depends on whether the ICO views your activity as covered by the "domestic purposes" exemption. If the ICO takes the view that the Facebook group is, in effect, a club and you are holding data on behalf of the club you would need to register. This costs £35 per year.

The ICO's guidance on how the DPA applies to social networking and online forums can be found here.

prh47bridge Thank you

Going to take a look now.