The New MRS Code of Conduct and GDPR

I attended the MRS Operations event on 9 July with presentations from Julie Corney (MRS Standards & Compliance Manager) on the new MRS code of Conduct 2019 and Debra Harding (Managing Director MRS) on GDPR. Although not the most exciting of subjects, ones that affect Operations, especially f2f, are taken very seriously at Quadrangle RED.

The code of conduct has had an up-to-date makeover to include GDPR and the new UK Data Protection Act 2018. It’s still to be released but first impressions show it to be looking better defined. We then went onto the subject we all love to hate. GDPR. Debra did her best to answer the questions posed prior to the event but with clarify difficult to get from the governing bodies, answers are sometimes cautious until the point when clarity will be freely available. 

Here are a couple of snippets I took away from the event that may be obvious to those paid to be the ‘GDPR police’, but for us every day folk could slip through the net. Please note, I am not the GDPR police, so this is my interpretation only: 

• The perils of PII - job titles can identify someone if unique, as could a verbatim statement if the use of language is striking enough. As unlikely as this sounds, be wary about what is asked and included when passing them to a third party.
• Contracts stating who the data processor is and who the controller is are not worth the paper they are written on if a case goes to court and you are actually doing something else than recorded.
• Opt out lists should be kept for life and although email addresses could be unique to an individual, a postal address isn’t. However, you still shouldn’t contact it, unless new residents opt in.
• When buying lists, although the supplier is responsible for ensuring all is above board, Operations should be asking them questions to determine they have the correct consent in place. If you don’t get the right answers, avoid them.

If you have any F2F fieldwork needs, then please get in contact.