Privacy watchdog ICO slashes its fines in half

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/02/ico_fines_halves/

The total value of fines issued by the UK Information Commissioner's Office
has halved compared with last year – despite the watchdog receiving roughly
the same number of complaints about data protection.

In 2014/15, the ICO issued £1.1m in so-called civil monetary penalties,
£386,000 of which were for companies behind nuisance calls or texts. It
received 14,268 data protection concerns. The previous year the body issued
nearly £2m in penalties and handled 14,738 complaints.

Many have called on the watchdog to issue more fines to shock companies
into preventing privacy breaches. But in May the ICO said issuing fines
"left, right and centre" is not the way to safeguard privacy.

The figures also show an 11.4 per cent increase in number of concerns
raised about nuisance calls and texts to 180,188.

The figures are included in the ICO's annual report to be published today.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Information Commissioner Christopher
Graham will point to the strengthening of the ICO's regulatory powers over
the last year.

In the past year, the ICO was given powers to compulsorily audit NHS bodies
for their data handling. Meanwhile, forcing a potential employee to make a
subject access request for their spent criminal record was also made an
offence. And a law was changed that made it easier to fine companies behind
nuisance calls and texts.

He will say: “Our Annual Report is our claim to be listened to in the
debates around information rights. It shows the ICO knows what it is
talking about.”

According to Graham, the next 12 months will be "crucial" for the ICO, as
Brussels is in the middle of reforming Europe's data protection laws.
"We’ve been asked for our advice, based on our experience regulating the
existing law, while we’ve also provided a sensible commentary on
proceedings for interested observers," he will say.

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