Personal data security lapses identified
Summary
This Report
‘Information
Commissioner's Office: Annual Report 2006/07’ (HC 646) highlights the
various issues that surround freedom of information and personal data security.
For example, there have been over 200,000 requests for
information from public authorities, most of them successful, with members of
the public the biggest group of users, with information requests covering such
areas as, toxic waste, speed cameras, the performance of surgeons and MP's
travel expenses.
Another area of concern has been personal information
and identity theft, where the purposeful, routine and systematic recording of
everyone's movements, activities and transactions in public and private spaces,
has led to the notion of a surveillance society. Security lapses in regard of
personal information from banks, retailers, government departments and public
bodies require organisations to have guaranteed safeguards in place for data
protection.
The Information Commissioner received around 24,000
enquiries and complaints about personal data in 2006-07. The Report states that
breaches were "likely to have happened" in 35% of these cases.
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How does it affect me?
If your personal data is stored by a
business or public sector body - e.g. a high street retailer, a bank or a
government agency - or you work for a business or public sector body which
collects and/or stores personal data, this affects you.
The Information
Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK's independent public body set up to
promote access to official information and to protect personal information. It
enforces the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and the Environmental
Information Regulations 2004.
It also provides guidance to organisations
and individuals to promote awareness of information rights and obligations. The
Commissioner, who reports directly to Parliament, has the power to order
compliance, using enforcement and decision notices and prosecution.
Commenting on the Annual Report, Richard Thomas, the Information
Commissioner, said "Business and public sector leaders must take their data
protection obligations more seriously. The majority of organisations process
personal information appropriately – but privacy must be given more priority
in every UK boardroom. Organisations that fail to process personal information
in line with the Principles of the Data Protection Act not only risk
enforcement action by the ICO, they also risk losing the trust of their
customers."
The Information Commissioner is seeking greater powers to inspect companies,
including the power to ‘spot check’ without being required to obtain
permission.
See more on the work of the
Information Commissioner.