Tag: Information Commissioner’s Office

ICO warns organisations to proactively make advertising cookies compliant after positive response to November call to action

Stuart Mitchell

Stephen Almond, Executive Director, Regulatory Risk, leads the ICO’s team responsible for anticipating, understanding and shaping the impacts of emerging technology and innovation on people and society: Last November we wrote to 53 of the UK’s top 100 websites, warning that they faced enforcement action if they did not make changes to advertising cookies to comply with data protection law. We’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response to our call to action. Of the 53 organisations we contacted, 38 organisations have changed their cookies banners to be compliant and four have…

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New ICO campaign promotes sharing data to safeguard children

Stuart Mitchell

The Information Commissioner’s Office is partnering with education, law enforcement and social service organisations to raise awareness about responsible data sharing to protect children from harm. The data protection regulator has launched a myth-busting campaign called ‘Think. Check. Share.’ which demonstrates how data protection law can help organisations to share personal information when required to safeguard children and young people.  The National Day Nurseries Association, the Early Years Alliance, the College of Policing, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Confederation of School Trusts are among the first organisations to…

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Harmful online design encourages consumers to hand over personal information

Stuart Mitchell

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are calling for businesses to stop using harmful website designs that can trick consumers into giving up more of their personal data than they would like. Practices include overly complicated privacy controls, default settings that give less control over personal information and bundling privacy choices together in ways that push consumers to share more data than they would otherwise wish to do. Where consumers lack effective control over how their data is collected and used, this can harm consumers…

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ICO launches consultation on how it prioritises FOI complaints

Stuart Mitchell

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a consultation on how it prioritises the complaints it receives about public bodies’ handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. Limited funding, an increase in FOI cases brought to the ICO and an increased need to support stretched public authorities have created ‘a perfect storm’. The ICO is therefore looking at ways to improve its FOI casework services to make information rights work more effectively. The proposal is to prioritise complaints where there is a clear public interest in the information that has…

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Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launches ‘Be Data Aware’ campaign

Stuart Mitchell

In our data-driven world, it’s more important than ever to know who is using people’s personal data, and why. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is launching the ‘Be Data Aware’ campaign to help people understand how organisations might be using their data to target them online, and how people can control who is targeting them. This includes understanding how organisations use people’s data to reach them with social media adverts to market goods or services and for political marketing. The ICO’s ongoing investigation into the use of data analytics for political purposes…

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