July 9, 2010 by Jen
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the regulating body responsible for data protection and privacy within the UK, has released a new code of practice for online data collection. The move has been taken following a number of security breaches perpetrated by the public sector.
The code of practice has been developed in order to safeguard UK consumers against further Data Protection Act violations by government departments.
The ICO has the power to punish organisations within the UK through the using of fines (up to £50,000) for contravention of data privacy resulting from the loss of personal data. Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, has released a statement to suggest that future breaches of security for individuals would be brought to task for the contravention of the Data Protection Act.
The ICO have issued an online guide which provides detailed guidance for businesses and other organisations which collate information about the public. The guide recommends regular cleansing of data repositories to retain the anonymity of individuals engaged with the business. It also contains guidance on the use of online methods for collating personal data from site visitors.
In addition, the ICO have warned against claiming that certain data fields used online are ‘mandatory’, claiming that this term is used erroneously by businesses seeking to collate data. The ICO has expressed concerns that there is a high level of data loss within the National Health Service, creating a loss of confidence by consumers in NHS data management.
Simon Davies, a campaigner for privacy, commented: “These guidelines must be adopted across all continents before they will start to create meaningful protections. The office has failed to understand the implications of the internet and has traditionally let the big companies off the hook. The guide has some gems of common sense, but I’d condense it into ten words of advice to the Commissioner: “Show some guts and stand up to the big boys.”
Related posts:
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- Google refuse to handover wireless network information
- Facebook concedes to privacy critics
- Google cleared of illegal data gathering in UK
- Online privacy enhanced by new ‘data fade’ initiative
- Microsoft launches new browser to rival Google
