Reactiv Media has found itself facing a 50% increase in the fine it was attempting to overturn after an appeal to the First-Tier Information Rights Tribunal. The UK Information Rights Tribunal hears appeals against decisions of the Information Commissioner’s Office actions relating to data protection, privacy electronic communications, freedom of information and environmental information.
Information Commissioner's Office
UK Government releases ‘Bring Your Own Device’ Guidance
In early October, the UK government updated a collection of guidance notes they had issued on ‘bring your own device’ initiatives (BYOD). Given the increase in employees using their personal devices to connect to their employers’ systems, employers in both the private and public sector will welcome this guidance.
The ‘BYOD Guidance: Executive Summary’ describes…
ICO January Updates for 2014
The ICO has had a busy January with some key updates to note for the start of 2014.
The ICO has produced a series of quarterly reports:
- Spam text messages
- The main three topics for the subject of unsolicited marketing text messages were found to be debt management, payday loans and payment protection insurance.
- Enforcement
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UK High Court Defines Tests To Determine if Data is Personal
This post was written by Cynthia O’Donoghue.
The UK High Court was forced to re-examine the concept of ‘personal data’ in the recent case of Kelway v The Upper Tribunal, Northumbria Police and the Information Commissioner (2013) EWHC 2575 (Admin). The case involved an application for judicial review by Dr Kelway against two…
ICO adopts enforcement action plan
The UK data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has published a Data Protection Regulatory Action Policy, setting out factors the ICO will consider when deciding whether to initiate enforcement action and what form it should take. The policy should assist organisations with understanding the enforcement process and the risks of non-compliance with the…
UK data protection authority publishes data breach statistics
The UK data protection authority, Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has published statistics regarding breach incidents in the first quarter of this year (1 April – 30 June 2013). In a related press release, the ICO discussed conclusions drawn from the numbers regarding the most common types of data breaches and the sectors that appear to…
ICO to check out websites for adequate Subject Access Request wording
Following a public consultation in December 2012 on a draft version, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published its final Subject Access Code of Practice on 8 August 2013.
Like all other data protection laws in the EU, the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) includes the principle that anyone has the right to find out what…
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to appeal the ICO’s £250k fine
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (the “ICO”) has served a monetary penalty notice of £250,000 on Sony Computer Entertainment Europe following the hacking of Sony’s PlayStation Network in April 2011, which it described as a serious breach of the UK Data Protection Act (the “Act”). The ICO stated that Sony did not take “appropriate technical…
UK Information Commissioner’s Office Releases ‘Bring Your Own Device’ Guidance
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published guidance on ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD), given the tremendous increase in employees both connecting to, and seeking to be able to use their personal devices to connect to, their employers’ systems. The ICO reported that 47% of employees now use personal smartphones, laptops or tablets for work,…
The UK Information Commissioner details the timeline of the EU data protection reforms
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has published an explanation of the process and timeline of the proposed EU data protection reform and its involvement in the on-going negotiations.
According to the ICO, the proposed EU data protection reforms could “be one of the biggest changes to data protection that the (UK) has ever seen.”…