Poor Tech Security could cost you £1000s and kill your reputation and your business
There has been a 1000% increase in the loss of personal data in the last 5 years according to the ICO, leading to increasingly hefty fines for the organisations involved. Instances like these are not surprising when the UK has the highest internet usage in Europe, according to OFCOM. The average cost to s small business of such a breach is anything from £15 – 30,000, and SMEs are increasingly targeted by hackers due to their security measures being far less robust than those routinely operated by larger organisations. The cost to a large organisation, meanwhile, can be up to £250,000 on average, meaning that as a whole breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 cost the UK economy billions every year in lost revenue.
Personal Data is defined as anything that allows an individual to be identified, so anything from a name or address to a date of birth, and NI number or medical records. Audio and video data of an individual is also classed as personal data for these purposes. While the public sector remains susceptible to breaches, with 186 serious breaches alone in the NHS in 2011/12, private companies have also fallen foul, with Tesco, A4e and O2 falling foul of the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) in recent years. (more…)
UK ICO launches investigation into Google’s privacy policy
The UK ICO joins the rest of Europe in investigating whether Google complies with Data Protection Legislation
The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (” ICO”) has launched an investigation against Google in order to determine whether Google’s privacy policy complies with the Data Protection Act. The move follows an initial investigation by French data protection agency CNIL on behalf of the Article 29 Working Party, of which the ICO is a member.
Since then, similar investigations have been launched by other European countries – namely Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as the UK – after concerns were raised by data protection regulators that the search engine’s privacy policy did not comply with national legislation. The regulators repeatedly brought their concerns to Google after the search engine changed its privacy policy in 2012, but Google has so far refused to amend its policy, resulting in the current investigation. Continue Reading →
Posted by DigitalLawUK on April 15, 2013 in Comment, News Update and tagged CNIL, Data Protection Act, EU Data protection Regs, Google, ICO, privacy, UK ICO.
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