Before you start to collect or use people's data, you need to identify and document a 'lawful processing condition' (or 'lawful basis') that you can rely on. Doing this is part of your obligation under the 'lawfulness, fairness & transparency' principle.
There is a common misconception that you need people's consent before you can do anything with their data - as you will see from the list below consent is just one of conditions that you may be able to rely on.
Section 7 of the Law sets out the requirements for processing to be lawful. It refers to Schedule 2 of the Law and the conditions for processing within that Schedule.
Do not start processing any personal data unless you have clearly established and documented details of the relevant condition/s.
The majority of conditions require that ‘the processing is necessary’ in order to be able to rely upon them. This means that if you could reasonably achieve the same purpose without the processing you cannot rely upon that condition.
The conditions for processing to be lawful under the Law Enforcement Ordinance differs to those required by the Law. When processing personal data for a Law Enforcement purpose under the Law Enforcement Ordinance please consult section 5 and Schedule 2 of the Ordinance.
There is a separate set of conditions for when you are processing special category data (i.e. racial or ethnic origin; political opinion; religious or philosophical belief; trade union membership; genetic data; biometric data; health data; sex life; criminal data)
For personal data not considered to be special category data, you must satisfy at least one of the conditions below:
- Consent
- Contractual
- Vital interests
- Public function
- Legitimate interests
- Law
- Public domain
- Enactment
- Court order / judgement
- Health / Social Care
- Public Health
- Legal proceedings / Court / Tribunal / Legal Advice / Legal Rights
- Administration of justice / Crown function
- Law enforcement
- Not-for-profit
- Historical / Scientific
- Equal opportunity
- Regulation / enactment