A method of securely storing and accessing personal data (26) relating to an individual (28), said personal data constituting a personal data record, is described. The method comprises: coupling a portable data storage device (42) to a computing device (12) for data transfer between them, the storage device carrying an encrypted personal data record (38) and a decryption means (40) for decrypting the personal data record upon provision of a key (36) not stored on the storage device (42); accessing the personal data record on the storage device (42) and running the decryption means (40) on the computing device (12) to decrypt the personal data record upon input of the key (36) to the computing device; and displaying the decrypted personal data (26) by means of the computing device.