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On 7 February 2022, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced that it had launched a consultation on Chapter 3 of its draft guidance on anonymisation, pseudonymisation, and privacy enhancing technologies (PET).
Continue Reading ICO launches consultation on Chapter 3 of updated guidance on anonymisation, pseudonymisation and PET

The ICO Data Sharing Code of Practice which was published earlier this year aimed to provide organisations with practical guidance for data sharing in compliance with data protection law, which we previously wrote about here.

The ICO are aware that data sharing encompasses many other dimensions and thus that the guidance would be updated on an on-going basis. As part of this, the ICO outlined its plans to update its guidance on anonymisation and pseudonymisation and on exploring privacy enhancing technologies. The refreshed guidance will assist in some of the challenges that organisations may face such as determining whether data is personal data or anonymous information and providing appropriate controls that should be adopted.
Continue Reading The ICO unveils its plans for updating anonymisation guidance

On 11 November 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) released recommendations on supplementary measures for international transfers (here) and recommendations on the European Essential Guarantees for surveillance measures (here), following the Schrems II decision (see our previous blog here).

As a result of the Schrems II decision, data exporters who use certain transfer mechanisms as an appropriate safeguard for personal data during international transfers, such as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), are required, on a case by case basis, to assess whether the law of the third country provides a level of protection that is essentially equivalent to that guaranteed in the European Economic Area (EEA). If such protections are not equivalent, data exporters should consider whether any supplementary measures can be implemented to fill the gaps in protection.Continue Reading The European Data Protection Board releases recommendations on supplementary measures following the Schrems II decision

On 21 October 2020, almost a year after the UK’s Information Commissioner Office (ICO) provided draft guidance on the right of access, the ICO published its updated guidance on data subject access requests (DSARs), available here (Guidance).

In a previous post available here, we covered what DSARs are and the principles areas of focus of the draft guidance.

So, what has changed? Overall, the Guidance provides more in-depth advice and further examples to help organisations understand how they can meet Article 15 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements in handling DSARs.

There are, however, three particular areas of note, where the ICO provided further explanation.
Continue Reading ICO releases updated guidance on data subjects’ right of access

On 8 October 2020, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published new guidelines on relevant and reasoned objection under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The guidelines cover the cooperation and consistency provisions set out in Chapter VII of the GDPR, under which supervisory authorities have a duty to exchange all relevant information with each other and cooperate in an endeavor to reach consensus when they coordinate investigations that cross borders in the European Union (EU).

 Background

Under Article 60 of the GDPR, the lead supervisory authority (LSA) is required to submit draft decisions to the concerned supervisory authorities, who may then raise a “relevant and reasoned objection” to the LSA within a specific timeframe of four weeks. On review of the relevant and reasoned objection, the LSA can either follow the suggestions of the concerned supervisory authorities and produce a revised draft decision, or disagree with the objections and submit the matter to the EDPB for consideration under the GDPR’s consistency mechanism.
Continue Reading EDPB releases guidelines on relevant and reasoned objection

On 2 September 2020, the European Data Protection Board (‘EDPB’) published new guidelines on the concepts of controller and processor in the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’). These guidelines are open for public consultation until 19 October 2020. The new guidelines will replace the previous guidelines on the same concepts, which were issued by the Article 29 Working Party in 2010.

The first part of the new guidelines analyses the concepts of controller and processor, providing relevant examples. The second part analyses the consequences of, and relationship between, the different roles.
Continue Reading EDPB publishes new guidelines on the concepts of controller and processor

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) published earlier this month its Accountability Framework, available here. The Accountability Framework is designed to assist companies demonstrate compliance with their accountability obligation under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and assess whether their current measures meet the ICO’s expectations.

The Accountability Framework consists of ten categories where the ICO expects companies to be able to demonstrate compliance:

  1. Leadership and oversight;
  2. Training and awareness;
  3. Transparency;
  4. Contracts and data sharing;
  5. Records management and security;
  6. Policies and procedures;
  7. Individuals’ rights;
  8. Records of processing and lawful basis;
  9. Risks and data protection impact assessments; and
  10. Breach response and monitoring.

Continue Reading The UK’s Supervisory Authority releases its Accountability Framework

On 12 June 2020, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued new guidance for organisations on the coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery phase (Guidance).

The Guidance (available here) forms part of the ICO’s wider data protection and coronavirus information hub (available here) which aims to help organisations navigate data protection during this unprecedented time.

The new Guidance comes as the lockdown measures start to ease and businesses begin to reopen. It sets out six key data protection steps that organisations need to consider around the use of personal data.
Continue Reading ICO issues guidance for organisations amid coronavirus recovery

Late last year, we reported that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had published draft guidance for assisting organisations with explaining decisions made about individuals using with AI. Organisations that process personal data using AI systems are required under the GDPR to provide an explanation of the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing in the form of a transparency notice to the data subjects.

On 20 May 2020, followings its open consultation, the ICO finalised the guidance (available here). This is the first guidance issued by the ICO that focuses on the governance, accountability and management of several different risks arising from the use of AI systems when making decisions about individuals.

As with the draft guidance, the final guidance is split into three parts. We have outlined the key takeaways for each part below.Continue Reading ICO finalises guidance on explaining decisions made with AI