This is basically a government agency who are seeking to collect as much money from small business as possible so that they can utilise it in their 'battle' against data leaks from large companies. Their letters to small businesses are totally misleading ('You may not be aware of the requirement to pay an annual data protection fee' ... 'Most Companies need to pay £40 or £60 a year' . . . 'You could be fined up to £4000').Although the letters are legitimate in that a lot of companies will need to register if they do process personal information, they are quite misleading in that 'most companies need to register'.If you are a small business, employing a couple of staff (for whom you keep their records digitally and process their wages with software) and have a few supplies and customers, whose names you may have on your software, you are probably exempt.This scenario would appear to apply to most small businesses.So these are completely misleading shock tactics by a government agency to extort money from unsuspecting small business owners. Small businesses actually get nothing back from the 'scheme' (other than threats of what will happen to them if the 'break the law') and it is effectively a government backed scam. I would not be surprised if an associate of someone in government is making a huge amount of money from this.
