Why bother to cleanse data?
It's the law
These are the eight principles put in place by the Data Protection Act 1998. Good data management will ensure that all these principles are in place. Data cleansing specifically covers principles 4 and 7.
Principles
There are eight principles put in place by the Data Protection Act 1998 to make sure that information is handled properly.
These state that data must be:
- fairly and lawfully processed
- processed for limited purposes
- adequate, relevant and not excessive
- accurate
- not kept for longer than is necessary
- processed in line with your rights
- secure
- not transferred to countries without adequate protection.
By law data controllers have to keep to these principles.
Click here for details of the legal obligations
Cost
If data is not cleansed regularly and properly, there is a greater margin for mistakes to be made. This may be a simple case of experiencing 'Gone Aways' when a mailing is carried out or it could potentially be more costly if a TPS/CTPS registered individual is contacted by telephone.
Reputation
We all receive mail from companies in our business and personal lives from some companies we know and some companies we don't know. If mail is received incorrectly spelt, to a previous occupant, worse still addressed to someone who has died, this company's reputation is adversely affected and the mail will almost certainly go in the bin. Without database cleansing, companies may as well cut out the middle man, and junk the mail in the first place.
It's never been easier to update your database - click here for details of our free database audit.
