Fines likely for data breaches
Article Date: Nov 18 2008
Data protection is now a critical issue
The UK’s privacy and data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), is seeking the power to fine businesses up to 10 per cent of their revenues for breaking data laws.
That penalty is the maximum punishment the Financial Services Authority can impose on companies that breach financial regulations. The ICO believes it should be able to enact the same penalty for companies that commit ‘serious and reckless breaches [of the Data Protection Act] resulting in harm to individuals’. The maximum penalty currently available to the ICO is £5,000.
The Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, told the RSA Security conference in October that he also expects the current rule preventing him from being able to requisition suspects’ computers without their permission to be relaxed.
According to Paula Barrett, head of the data protection team at law firm Eversheds, the ICO’s call for greater powers reflects a feeling among lawmakers that businesses are not taking data laws seriously enough.
'It is in line with the general sense of wanting to protect consumers from businesses abusing their position,' she says. 'There is also a concern that, with enhanced computer technology, there is a greater ability to capture data and maintain a profile about an individual. Also, people are getting fed up with unsolicited emails and junk mail.
'We will see further regulation,” Barrett adds. 'Technology has moved on apace and in particular the use of the internet information gathering going on that was never conceived of before.'
Meanwhile, the ICO revealed this week that 11 government ministers, including education minister Ed Balls, have broken the Data Protection Act which was introduced by the current Labour government in 1998. The ministers failed to place themselves on a Data Protection Register while collecting personal data on their constituents.
