Fiche 17/54 Part 2 — Core Principles Intermediate Reviewed 2026-08-23

Principle of Accuracy (Art. 5.1.d)

Personal data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Controllers are legally required to swiftly rectify or erase inaccurate records.

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⚖️ Legal Duty 🏛️ Correlative to Art. 16

Principle of Accuracy (Art. 5.1.d)

⚡ In 30 seconds

Under Article 5(1)(d), personal data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay. Inaccuracy can lead to severe personal harm in credit scoring, employment, or medical diagnosis.

Objective Accuracy

Verification of objective facts: names, bank IBANs, salary amounts, official identity registers. Errors must be corrected at source.

Ongoing Maintenance

Duty to maintain data updates when decisions depend on current status: customer addresses, credit risk parameters, medical history.

⚡ Key Takeaways

Subjective opinions (e.g. employee performance review) are not 'inaccurate' if clearly labeled as evaluative judgments.
Downstream notification: Article 19 requires notifying all data recipients of any rectification.
Reasonable steps standard: the controller must deploy reasonable verification diligence proportionate to context.

⚠️ Common Pitfall

Ignoring customer change-of-address notifications, leading to confidential notices being posted to former residences.

🛠️ In Practice

Provide self-service profile dashboards allowing authenticated users to update their personal attributes directly.

⚖️ Official Sources: Art. 5(1)(d), 16, 19 GDPR · Recital 39 ✓ Legal review: 23 August 2026