The accuracy principle specifies that personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary kept up to date.

This means that we should endeavour to keep personal data up to date as this supports our ability to provide services based upon current data.  Clearly there is a dependency on maintaining a relationship with a source of accurate data, such as maintaining a relationship with the data subject.

There are circumstances where this principle may not apply, for example organisations sometimes need to maintain personal data for archiving purposes where changing the personal data could damage the integrity of the processing.