Limiting periodic verification to publicly available sources is not merely an ethical choice. It is the legally correct methodology under nFADP Art. 6 — and the foundation of an auditable, defensible programme.
The public / private line
There is a fundamental difference between:
The first is an assessment of publicly available information — no different from reading a published article or consulting a commercial registry. The second is intrusive data collection that creates its own regulatory exposure.
Premtrace operates strictly in the public sphere. We access platforms and sources that any member of the public can reach without authentication or special access. If information requires a login, a password or any form of access restriction, we do not retrieve it.
Why the source limit is legally load-bearing
nFADP Art. 6 — data minimisation
Processing must be proportionate to the purpose. For fit-and-proper verification, the purpose is to assess whether a covered employee's publicly visible conduct remains consistent with the firm's standards and regulatory obligations. Reaching into private communications would exceed that scope and breach the minimisation principle.
Overriding-interest balance
The nFADP Art. 31 overriding-interest basis for periodic verification holds precisely because the intrusion on the individual is bounded: only what the person has themselves made public is reviewed. Extending to private data would tip the balance against the individual's interests and could invalidate the legal basis.
Auditability
A programme that accesses only public sources can be fully described and justified. At examination, you can state exactly what was searched, where and why. A programme that reaches into private data raises questions about the legal authority for that access that are difficult to answer cleanly.
What we do not do
To be unambiguous, Premtrace never:
What public sources catch
Public-source verification identifies the risks that matter most for fit-and-proper purposes:
Those are the findings your Compliance Officer needs. They are all discoverable from public sources. No intrusive access is necessary or appropriate.
The right standard
A periodic programme built on public sources alone is proportionate, legally grounded and explainable. That combination — not the breadth of sources reached — is what makes it defensible at examination.