Data Protection
Data protection is the legal and practical responsibility to keep personal information safe and use it only for the purposes you collected it for. In Ireland, data protection law is enforced by the Data Protection Commission (DPC), which can investigate complaints and issue fines. For small businesses, the basics are straightforward: do not collect data you do not need, keep it secure, and be transparent with customers about how you use it.
Real-world example
A Dublin childcare provider stores parents' contact details and medical information for children. They keep this in a password-protected system and have a clear data protection policy on their website — protecting them if the DPC ever receives a complaint.
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