Data portability

[SimonRigga]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advise, or if anyone knows any legislation I can quote.

Firstly a little background, in the UK an individual has the right to data portability, what this means, is that if you are using a company and have put some of your data into their systems, they have a legal obligation to provide that data if requrested by the individual. Mostly so if that individual wants to use the services of another company, then the data can be more easily transferred.

I'm looking for some rights or legislation where that applies to a companies rights about their data.

e.g. Company A signs up with Sales Force or some other online CRM/Database, then after a period of time wants to move to a different providor, is there any legal right for the Company A to receive their own data in a format that can be reasonably read?

I'm amazed there isn't something but I can't seem to find anything, does anyone have know anything in this area? I can't believe that that a company could literally hold another company to ransom, by just saying no, you can't have your data?

Thanks in advance.
S.

 

[Diddums]

Sign up to Secret Santa and maybe someone will help you

 

[melmac]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advise, or if anyone knows any legislation I can quote.

Firstly a little background, in the UK an individual has the right to data portability, what this means, is that if you are using a company and have put some of your data into their systems, they have a legal obligation to provide that data if requrested by the individual. Mostly so if that individual wants to use the services of another company, then the data can be more easily transferred.

I'm looking for some rights or legislation where that applies to a companies rights about their data.

e.g. Company A signs up with Sales Force or some other online CRM/Database, then after a period of time wants to move to a different providor, is there any legal right for the Company A to receive their own data in a format that can be reasonably read?

I'm amazed there isn't something but I can't seem to find anything, does anyone have know anything in this area? I can't believe that that a company could literally hold another company to ransom, by just saying no, you can't have your data?

Thanks in advance.
S.

Don't know, but the laws for the individual might not apply to a service level agreements between two companies. You might not be able to find anything because there is no law as such, that it depends on the agreement made between both companies. There might be no obligation on Salesforce, for example, to return Company A's data in any particular format or to provide any assistance migrating to a new provider.

 

[SimonRigga]

Don't know, but the laws for the individual might not apply to a service level agreements between two companies. You might not be able to find anything because there is no law as such, that it depends on the agreement made between both companies. There might be no obligation on Salesforce, for example, to return Company A's data in any particular format or to provide any assistance migrating to a new provider.

Cheers Mel, I just find it bizarre that there is no legislation covering this as it could be used to lock a company into your services? or used to stop competition..

I guess you really do need a company lawyer when signing up for company to company agreements, or you could be trapped.

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

Every providers data will be in a different structure. If moving elsewhere it will need migrated over, typically using ETL (Extract Transform and Load).

 

[kindai]

I can't believe that that a company could literally hold another company to ransom, by just saying no, you can't have your data?

Thats why you need to ensure the contract covers such eventualities in a B2B environment.

But to answer your question, no, GDPR would not give you data portability as a company.

 

[SimonRigga]

Every providers data will be in a different structure. If moving elsewhere it will need migrated over, typically using ETL (Extract Transform and Load).

100% not saying it should be a simple changover, just that they make the data (your data) available in an easily readable format, be it spreadsheets, of a full database backup or whatever, if you want to change provider.

We have a case where a client wants to move to our system but their current provider is stonewalling, on how they cand thus us can get access to the clients data, so ideally wanted some sort of legislation i could point to that makes what they are doing illegal, but seems there is none, and companies can just keep other companies data therefore locking them into a particular system.

 

[melmac]

Cheers Mel, I just find it bizarre that there is no legislation covering this as it could be used to lock a company into your services? or used to stop competition..

I guess you really do need a company lawyer when signing up for company to company agreements, or you could be trapped.

I guess it's because it would be kind of hard to structure a law about that? It's an agreement between two companies. My advice for the client that wants to move to you would be to see what agreement is in place and go from there.

EDIT: and don't know how well you know the client that wants to move to you. But, they might not be telling you the whole story either. They could be breaking a contract early without paying or something else.

 

[Siliconslave]

I work (and have worked for some time) in SaaS software sales - typically these sort of provisions will be in the service providers contract / MSA. If they don't have these provisions theres nothing in general law like GDPR for company data i'm afraid. After exhausting all other avenues i'd be going to linkedin before hitting the lawers...

 

[SimonRigga]

Thanks both, and yes we're already suggesting to the potential client that they publish the fact on socials and other places that they can't get their own data, hoping the potential reputational damage will swing things.