The ICO recently published its Information Rights Strategic Plan for 2017 – 2021 (the ‘Plan’). Within it, the ICO Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, asserts that we are on the “edge of a new frontier,” and that the data protection landscape is about to be reshaped by the “game changing” General Data Protection Regulation (the ‘GDPR’). Noting the significant changes for organisations, the public and regulators, the Commissioner sets the key aim of ensuring that data protection regulators stay relevant. According to the Commissioner’s opening statement, this entails increasing the public’s trust in government, public bodies and the private sector in terms of not only transparency, but also their involvement in the digital economy and digital public services.
The Plan specifies five clear goals:
- Increase the public’s trust and confidence in how data is used and made available;
- Improve standards of information rights practice through clear, inspiring and targeted engagement and influence;
- Maintain and develop influence within the global information rights regulatory community;
- Stay relevant, provide excellent public service and keep abreast of evolving technology; and
- Enforce the laws the ICO helps to shape and oversee
Continue Reading ICO’s Strategic Plan for the ‘New Frontier’ of Data Protection