Meetings storing information about their members and attenders on computers or other electronic devices or in manually processed paper files should be sensitive to the need to protect such information from unauthorised use and must comply with all legal requirements for data protection. Basic factual information on members such as addresses can be kept by the area meeting on the official register of members (11.37) without notification of those concerned. Such information may be passed to the yearly meeting database, except that members may then request that information other than their names be withheld.

Information on attenders and the non-member partners of members may only be held with their explicit consent. Information on children not in membership (11.38) may only be held with the explicit consent of their parent or guardian. Consent forms for inclusion in the area meeting lists should be drafted to enable such persons to opt for their information to be passed on to the yearly meeting database.

Friends should be made aware of the difficulty of maintaining perfect security of the printed lists made available to members and, frequently, to attenders, and should be given the opportunity of deleting some or all of their personal details (11.39).

If meetings record any other information on members and attenders, whether electronically or in paper-based records, for example in connection with nominations work or with applications for membership, the persons concerned must be informed that the information is held and that they may see and approve their own record.

Further advice can be obtained from the Recording Clerk (see also 8.21).