# Checking your charity's Data Protection status

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2002/11/26/checking-your-charity039s-data-protection-status/
- Published: 2002-11-26T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Are all of your fundraising activities covered under the Data Protection Act 1998?
You can easily check by searching online for your charity’s record at the The Data
Protection Register.
Are you planning to move into a new area of fundraising? Are
you expecting to collect data on new types of donors, volunteers or other supporters?
You should check first that your charity is permitted to gather and handle that 
data.

You could of course ask your finance director or administrator to see a copy of 
your charity’s Data Protection registration. Alternatively, you can find it online
at the Data Protection Register. This provides a current list, updated weekly, of
all those organisations who are registered under the 1998 Data Protection Act to
operate as what the Act calls Data Controllers. It should help you establish whether
your fundraising plans are covered or whether you’ll need to update your registration
to remain covered.

The listing is publicly available so you can also check up on other charities and
companies. One important reason to check your charity’s registration now is to ensure
that it is still current. The Information Commissioner recently introduced an annual
system of re-registration, replacing the three-yearly system.

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Check your charity’s listing today.

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