Tag: ICO

TikTok faces huge fine from Britain’s ICO

12. October 2022

Lately, the Chinese social media success has been the subject of an investigation by the British data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): the investigation has so far concluded that the social media network has clearly breached the United Kingdom’s data protection laws, in particular the regulations concerning children’s personal data in the time. The Authority issued therefore a notice of intent, which is a potential precursor to a fine amounting up to a staggering 27 million pounds.

In particular, the Authority found out that the platform could have processed personal data of children under the age of 13 failing to gather the parents’ consent for the processing of these data. Under these data there are allegedly also special category data, which have a special protection under Art. 9 GDPR.

Furthermore, in the ICO’s opinion the principle of transparency was not respected by the Chinese hit platform by not providing complete or transparent information on the data processing or their gathering.

The ICO’s investigation is still ongoing as the Commissioner’s Office is still deciding whether to impose the fine or whether there has been a breach of data protection law.

The protection of teenagers and children is the top priority of the ICO according to current Information Commissioner John Edwards. Under his guidance, the ICO has several ongoing investigations targeting various tech companies who could be breaking the UK’s data protection laws.

This is not the first time TikTok has been under observation by data protection watchdogs. In July a US – Australian cybersecurity firm has found that TikTok gathers excessive amounts of information from their users, and voiced their concern over their findings. Based on these precedents, it could be possible that local data protection authorities will increment their efforts to control TikTok’s compliance with local laws and, in Europe, with the  GDPR.

ICO releases Guidance on Video Surveillance

7. March 2022

At the end of February 2022, The UK Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO) published a guidance for organizations that capture CCTVs footage in order to provide advice for when they operate video surveillance systems that view or record individuals.

The recommendations aim to focus on best practices for data activities related to “emerging capabilities that can assist human decision making, such as the use of Facial Recognition Technology and machine learning algorithms.” As per the Guidance, surveillance systems specifically include traditional CCTV, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Body Worn Video, Drones, Facial Recognition Technology, dashcams and smart doorbell cameras.

In their Guidance, the ICO offers checklists with points that controllers can use in order to monitor their use of video surveillance and keep track of their compliance with the applicable law. It further touches on the principles of data protection and how they specifically apply to video surveillance. In addition, it helps companies with the documentation of a Data Processing Impact Assessment.

The Guidance gives in depth advice on video surveillance at the workplace as well as if video feeds should also record audio.

Overall, the Guidance aims to sensibilize controllers regarding the various issues faced with when using video surveillance, and gives them in depth help on what to do to be compliant with the data protection regulations in the UK.

ICO opens public consultation on its Regulatory Action Policy

6. January 2022

On December 20th, 2021, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launched a public consultation on its regulatory approach.

The public consultation is aimed at three separate documents which are the basis of the ICO’s regulatory process. The documents are the Regulatory Action Policy (RAP), the Statutory Guidance on the ICO’s Regulatory Action, and Statutory Guidance on the ICO’s PECR Powers.

The RAP in particular identifies the ICO’s risk-based approach to regulatory action and explains the factors that play a role in the ICO’s consideration before taking regulatory action. It also sets forth how the ICO cooperates with other regulators and enforces the legislation for which it is responsible.

In conjunction, the three documents illustrate how the ICO aims to enforce information rights for data subjects in the UK.

The ICO indicated that the purpose for updating these documents was to provide further explanation about its regulatory powers. It aims to give the public a chance to their views on the approach the Commissioner should take with regards to the regulatory approach of his office.

The public consultation period will conclude on March 24, 2022.

UK intents to deliver own Adequacy Decisions for Data Transfers to Third Countries

30. August 2021

On August 26, 2021, the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published a document in which it indicated the intent to begin making adequacy decisions for UK data transfers to third countries.

As the UK has left the EU, it has the power under Chapter V of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) to independently assess the standard of data protection in other jurisdictions, and recognize certain jurisdictions as adequate for the purpose of foreign UK data transfers. This was announced by the DCMS in a Mission Statement including reference to international data transfers, “International data transfers: building trust, delivering growth and firing up innovation“.

“In doing so we want to shape global thinking and promote the benefits of secure international exchange of data. This will be integral to global recovery and future growth and prosperity,” writes the UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden and Minister for Media and Data John Whittingdale.

The UK has developed and implemented policies and processes for reaching adequacy agreements with its partners. So far it has identified 10 countries as “priority destinations” for these deals. The countries include Australia, Brazil, Columbia, The Dubai International Financial Centre, India, Indonesia, Kenya, The Republic of Korea, Singapore and the USA.

The adequacy of a third country will be determined on the basis of whether the level of protection under the UK GDPR is undermined when UK data is transferred to the respective third country, which requires an assessment of the importing jurisdiction’s data protection laws as well as their implementation, enforcement and supervision. Particularly important for the consideration will be the third country’s respect for rule of law and the fundamental human rights and freedoms.

The Mission Statement specifies four phases in assessing the adequacy of a jurisdiction. In the first phase, the UK Adequacy Assessment team will evaluate if an adequacy assessment will take place. The second phase involves an analysis of the third country’s level of data protection laws, the result of which will influence the third phase, in which the UK Adequacy Assessment team will make a recommendation to the UK Secretary of State. In the fourth and last phase, the relevant regulations will be presented to Parliament to give legal effect to the Secretary of State’s determination.

Adequacy decisions are planned to be reviewed at least once every four years, and may be subject to judicial review.

Amex fined for sending four million unlawful emails

15. July 2021

American Express Service Europe Limited (Amex) has received a £ 90,000 fine from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for sending over four million unwanted marketing emails to customers.

The reason for the investigation by UK’s supervisory authority were complaints from Amex customers, which claimed to have been receiving marketing emails even though they had not given their consent to do so. The emails, sent as a part of a campaign, contained information regarding benefits of online shopping, optimal use of the card and encouragement to download the Amex app. According to Amex, the emails were rather about “servicing”, not “marketing”. The company insisted that customers would be disadvantaged if they were not aware of the campaigns and that the emails were a requirement of the credit agreements.

The ICO did not share this view. In its opinion, the emails were aimed at inducing customers to make purchases with their cards in return for a £ 50 benefit, and thus “deliberately” for “financial gain”. This constitutes a marketing activity which, without a valid consent, violates Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. The consents and therefore the legal basis were not given in this case.

The ICO Head of Investigations pointed out how important it is for companies to know the differences between a service email and a marketing email to ensure that email communications with customers are compliant with the law. While service messages contain routine information such as changes in terms and conditions or notices of service interruptions, direct marketing is any communication of promotional or marketing material directed to specific individuals.

An Amex spokesperson assured that the company takes customers’ marketing preferences very seriously and has already taken steps to address the concerns raised.

British Airways could reach a settlement over the 2018 data breach

7. July 2021

Back in 2018 British Airways was hit by a data breach affecting up to 500 000 data subjects – customers as well as British Airways staff.

Following the breach the UK’s Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has fined British Airways firstly in 2019 with a record fine of £183.000.000 (€ 205.000.000), due to the severe consequences of the breach. As reported beside inter alia e-mail addresses of the concerned data subjects also credit card information have been accessed by the hackers.

The initial record fine has been reduced by the ICO in 2020 after British Airways appealed against it. The ICO announced the final sanction in October 2020 –  £20.000.000 (€ 22.000.000). Reason for the reduction has been inter alia the current COVID-19 situation and it’s consequences for the Aviation industry.

Most recently it has been published that British Airways also came to a settlement in a UK breach class action with up to 16 000 claimants. The details of the settlement have been kept confidential, so that the settlement sum is not known, but the law firm, PGMBM, representing the claimants, as well as British Airways announced the settlement on July 6th.

PGMBM further explains, that the fine of the ICO “did not provide redress to those affected”, but that “the settlement now addresses” the consequences for the data subjects, as reported by the BBC.

ICO fined several companies for data protection infringements

15. June 2021

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has fined several companies at the beginning of June for data protection infringements.

All fines have in common that the fined companies conducted marketing measures without having the required consent for doing so.

  • Conservative Party

The ICO has fined the Conservative Party £10,000 for sending 51 marketing emails without having the required legal basis and in violation of Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation 2003 (PECR).

The Conservative Party sent out a total of 1.190.280 marketing emails between July 24th and July 31st 2019, right after the election and in the name of Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP.

The ICO investigated that the party failed to ensure having a valid legal basis for marketing emails when changing the email provider. Even though the ICO assumes that there are more than 51 concerned data subjects, the ICO only received complaints of 51 individuals, thus the fine is based on this amount of concerned data subjects.

  • Colour Car Sales Ltd.

The ICO has fined Colour Car Sales Ltd (CCSL)  £170,000  for sending spam text messages from October 2018 to January 2020. CCSL is a credit intermediary for used car finance and the purpose of the spam texts was to direct the recipients to car finance websites.

Also in this case basis for the fine has been complaints of concerned data subjects which complained about not have given consent for receiving marketing emails from CCSL.

  • Solarwave of Grays

The ICO has fined Solarwave of Grays £100,000 for conducting 73.217 marketing calls about solar panel maintenance from January to October 2020.

The complainants that raised the concerns stated that they were registered with the Telephone Preference Service and should have received any marketing telephone calls based on this.

The Telephone Preference Service is the UK’s “do not call register” with which individuals can register to show that they are not interested in receiving any kind of marketing phone calls.

Beside the violation of the data protection law and the Telephone Preferences Service the concerned data subjects also stated that the callers were rude and persistent and ignored stop requests.

  • LTH Holdings

The ICO has fined LTH Holding, a Cardiff based telephone marketing company, £145,000 for conducting 1.4 million calls trying to sell funeral plans between May 2019 and May 2020.

In this case the ICO received 41 complaints and the complainants were also registered with the Telephone Preferences Service. Beside this infringement, the concerned data subjects also told the ICO that LTH adopted aggressive, coercive and persuasive methods to sell funeral plans.

  • Papa John’s

The ICO has fined Papa John’s Limited, a national takeaway pizza company, £10,000 for sending 168,022 nuisance marketing messages to its customers.

In this case the ICO received 15 complaints also stating the distress and annoyance the messages were causing. Some customers received up to 100 messages in two months without ever have given consent for marketing emails.

The ICO investigated that Papa John’s has sent over 210.000 messages to customers between October 1st 2019 and April 30th 2020.

In the contrary to the opinion of Papa John’s the ICO did not see the possibility to rely on “soft opt-in” because the data used for the marketing emails has been obtained for processing orders and not receiving marketing emails. Furthermore, the required information of the customers on this processing activity is missing.

ICO plans to update guidance on anonymisation and pseudonymisation

31. March 2021

The ICO is planning to update their anonymisation and pseudonymisation guidance as blogged by Ali Shah, ICO’s Head of Technology Policy on March 19th, 2021. He emphasizes the important role of sharing personal data in a digital economy, citing the healthcare and financial sector as examples. Thus, in healthcare, data could improve patient care, and in the financial sector, it could help prevent money laundering and protect individuals from fraud.

Last year, the ICO published their recent Data Sharing Code of Practice. The intention of the Data Sharing Code, according to Elizabeth Denham CBE, Information Commissioner, is “to give individuals, businesses and organisations the confidence to share data in a fair, safe and transparent way (…)”. Shah calls the Data Sharing Code a milestone and not a conclusion stating that ICO’s ongoing work shall lead to more clarity and advice in regard to lawful data sharing.

He names several key topics that are going to be explored by the ICO in regard to updating the anonymisation and pseudonymisation guidance. Among others, you will find the following:

  • “Anonymisation and the legal framework – legal, policy and governance issues around the application of anonymisation in the context of data protection law”
  • “Guidance on pseudonymisation techniques and best practices”
  • “Accountability and governance requirements in the context of anonymisation and pseudonymisation, including data protection by design and DPIAs”
  • “Guidance on privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) and their role in safe data sharing”
  • “Technological solutions – exploring possible options and best practices for implementation”

It is to be welcomed that apparently not only the legal side will be explored, but also technical aspects should play their role, as designing and implementing systems with privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) and data protection by design in mind has the potential to contribute to compliance with data protection laws already at the technical level and therefore at an early stage of processing.

The ICO plans to publish each chapter of the guidance asking the industry, academia and other key stakeholders to present their point of view on the topic encouraging them to give insights and feedback in order for the ICO to get a better understanding where the guidance can be targeted most effectively.

EU-UK Trade Deal in light of Data Protection

4. January 2021

Almost fit to be called a Christmas miracle, the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) came to an agreement on December 24th, 2020. The Trade Agreement, called in full length “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement“, is set out to define new rules from the date of the UK Exit from the EU, January 1st, 2021.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, claimed it was a deal worth fighting for, “because we now have a fair and balanced agreement with the UK, which will protect our European interests, ensure fair competition, and provide much needed predictability for our fishing communities. Finally, we can leave Brexit behind us and look to the future. Europe is now moving on.

In light of Data Protection however, the new Trade Deal has not given much certainty of what is to come next.

Both sides are aware that an adequacy decision by the EU Commission is very important with regard to data protection and cross-border data flows. Accordingly, the EU has agreed to allow a period of four months, extendable by a further two months, during which data can be transferred between EU Member States and the UK without additional safeguards. This period was granted to give the Commission enough time to make an adequacy decision. Accordingly, data transfers can continue as before until possibly mid-2021. However, this arrangement is only valid if the UK does not change its data protection laws in the meantime.

With regard to direct marketing, the situation has not changed either: for individuals, active consent must be given unless there was a prior contractual relationship and the advertising relates to similar products as the prior contract. Furthermore, the advertising must also be precisely recognisable as such, and the possibility of revoking consent must be given in every advertising mail.

However, much else has yet to be clarified. Questions such as the competence of the UK Data Protection Authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), as well as the fate of its ongoing investigations, have not yet been answered. As of now, companies with their original EU Headquarters in the UK will have to designate a new Lead Supervisory Authority (Art. 56 GDPR) for their business in the EU.

The upcoming months will determine if questions with high relevance to businesses’ day to day practice will be able to be answered reassuringly.

ICO fines Marriott International

9. November 2020

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fines Marriott International Inc. (Marriott) £18.400.00  (€20.397.504).

The fine refers to a data breach which occurred in 2018. Back then the world’s largest hotel company based in the USA suffered a massive data breach affecting up to 383 million customers. For Marriott it is still not possible to state the exact number of people affected.

The ICO considers it proven that Marriott failed keeping customers’ personal data secure. In context of the breach confidential data like name, address and contact data as well as unencrypted passport and credit card data has been unauthorized accessed.

In a previous statement in 2019 the ICO announced, that it intends to fine Marriott with a fine of £99.200.396 (€109.969.591) this fine has now been reduced.

The reduction is based on the following reasons: the ICO considered the presentations from Marriott as well as the taken steps by Marriott as well as the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October, the fine previously issued by the ICO against British Airways was also reduced, again partly because of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the data breach occurred before the UK left the EU, the ICO investigated on behalf of all European Data Protection Authorities as lead Supervisory Authority and the fine has been approved by all other Authorities.

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