Selling personal data in an estate
As an insolvency practitioner, you are obliged by law to sell the remaining assets of the bankrupt company. This estate may contain personal data that are worth money, such as a customer database. Or there may be personal data on computers or laptops, for example. How should you, as an insolvency practitioner, handle this personal data?
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Selling a customer database
You cannot simply sell a customer database. This is only allowed if you have received prior consent from the people in the customer database. In this case, these are the customers of the bankrupt company. You must therefore ask for their consent to sell their data to another party.
If you sell a customer database, you provide the personal data to another controller. As a result, you process the data for a purpose other than that for which they were originally collected. This is only allowed if the original purpose and the new purpose are compatible.
This is not the case when selling a customer database. Therefore, you require the customers' consent. You are not allowed to sell the data without their consent. This naturally also applies to acquisition without consideration, such as 'giving away' personal data.
Selling computers or laptops
If, as an insolvency practitioner, you want to sell computers or laptops from the equipment of a bankrupt company, this is allowed only if they do not (or no longer) contain any personal data.
You may find digital data carriers among the equipment of a bankrupt company in computers or laptops, for example. You are allowed to sell the equipment only if it does not (or no longer) contains any data carriers. Or if the personal data have been irreversibly destroyed. It may be advisable to seek specialist assistance for this.