A piece by me just uploaded to the Mishcon de Reya website, on an FOI disclosure to me of the most recent reprimands under GDPR/ UK GDPR issued by the Information Commissioner
ICO reprimands Cabinet Office, UKIP, CPS and others for (mishcon.com)
Category Archives: Data Protection
An Open Letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg
Dear Mr Rees-Mogg
I suspect you and I wouldn’t agree on many things, but, before I moved into private practice I spent many years in the public sector. I saw many examples of efficient and inefficient working there (as well as countless dedicated officers who rarely had time to be sitting at their desks when senior management deigned to visit).
So, despite our different worldviews, and in the spirit of helping improve the efficiency of the offices of Members of Parliament, may I make a couple of suggestions about data protection compliance?
First, you said recently, before the European Scrutiny Committee, that constituents who come to see you at surgery are asked to sign a two-page disclaimer. Nothing in our data protection law requires this (in fact, expecting them to sign one is likely to be contrary to those laws). You should give anyone whose personal data you collect certain information, generally in the form of a notice, but that’s just a matter of being fair and transparent – there’s no reason at all to require a signature or a disclaimer. You could even just refer them to a notice on your own website (your current one is rather well hidden). That should save you a bit of time and money.
Second, at the same hearing, you were concerned that you needed to delete files on constituents prematurely. Again, this appears to be a misapprehension on your part. Personal data should be kept for as long as is necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected: if you still need it, you keep it. There – another efficiency tip!
Third, and more generally, I do find that there is a lot of misunderstanding of data protection law. It has a dual objective – to offer protection to individuals and to allow for free movement of data (both of which are obviously subject to qualifications and provisos). I don’t pretend that the law couldn’t do with some revisions, and I’ve even spoken to some of the people helping with the reform programme to suggest a few. But in general, it’s quite possible to run the public bodies and businesses efficiently and also comply with the data protection law – but I fear that training and awareness of that law have been, and continue to be, handled rather inefficiently at government level.
Yours
Jon Baines
The views in this post (and indeed most posts on this blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
Filed under Data Protection, GDPR, not-entirely-serious, parliament, Uncategorized
ICO calls for global cookie standards (but why not enforce the law?)
The outgoing UK Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, is calling on G7 countries to adopt her office’s new “vision” for websites and cookie consent.
Her challenge to fellow G7 data protection and privacy authorities has been issued at a virtual meeting taking place on 7 and 8 September, where they will be joined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Denham says “There are nearly two billion websites out there taking account of the world’s privacy preferences. No single country can tackle this issue alone. That is why I am calling on my G7 colleagues to use our convening power. Together we can engage with technology firms and standards organisations to develop a coordinated approach to this challenge”.
What is not clear is whether her vision is, or can be, underpinned by legal provisions, or whether it will need to take the form of a non-enforceable set of standards and protocols. The proposal is said to mean that “web browsers, software applications and device settings [should] allow people to set lasting privacy preferences of their choosing, rather than having to do that through pop-ups every time they visit a website”. The most obvious way of doing this would be through a user’s own browser settings. However, previous attempts to introduce something similar – notably the “Do Not Track” protocol – foundered on the lack of adoption and the lack of legal enforceability.
Also unaddressed, at least in the advance communications, is why, if cookie compliance is a priority area for the Information Commissioner, there has been no enforcement action under the existing legal framework (which consists primarily of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (or “PECR”)). Those current laws state that a website operator must seek consent for the placing of all cookies unless they are essential for the website to function. Although many website operators try hard to comply, there are countless examples of ones who don’t, but who suffer no penalty.
Denham says that “no single country can tackle this alone”, but it is not clear why such a single country can’t at least take steps towards tackling it on domestic grounds. It is open to her to take action against domestic website operators who flout the law, and there is a good argument that such action would do more to encourage proper compliance than will the promotion or adoption of non-binding international standards.
The views in this post (and indeed most posts on this blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
Filed under cookies, Data Protection, Information Commissioner, marketing, PECR
UK adequacy confirmed
To no great final surprise, the European Commission has adopted its adequacy decisions in respect of the UK.
Here’s a piece by me on the Mishcon de Reya website.
Filed under adequacy, Data Protection, Europe, GDPR, international transfers, law enforcement
New Model Clauses – a Mishcon podcast
My colleagues, partners Adam Rose and Ashley Winton, discuss the new European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses announced on 4 June 2021. I honestly can’t think of two better people to discuss what they mean.
Initial Reactions: New Standard Contractual Clauses (mishcon.com)
Filed under adequacy, Brexit, consistency, Data Protection, data sharing, EDPB, Europe, GDPR, international transfers, Schrems II
You what?
Twice in recent months the outgoing Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has given speeches including these words
Data protection law was born in the 1970s out of a concern that the potential from emerging technology would be lost if we didn’t embrace innovation.
I don’t know what she means. Does anyone else?
Studies I’m aware of more generally see data protection law arising, from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, out of a combination of: increasing awareness of and focus on fundamental human rights; an understanding that use of computers would cause an exponential increase in the ability to process information; a desire that concerns about the preceding two should not lead to unnecessary barriers to international trade.
(See, for example, the UK 1972 Report of the Committee on Privacy, chaired by Kenneth Younger, and the UK 1978 Report of the Committee on Data Protection chaired by Sir Norman Lindop. See, especially, the 1980 OECD Guidelines and the 1981 Council of Europe Convention 108.)
Whatever Ms Denham’s words mean, they miss the foundational status of human rights in modern data protection law. And that is a glaring omission. Article 1 of the UKGDPR is clear – data protection law now, as it always has
protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to the protection of personal data
There’s nothing wrong with embracing innovation (I do it myself). But let’s not misstate history.
Filed under Data Protection, GDPR, human rights, Information Commissioner, UK GDPR
Gov says “no” to UK GDPR opt-out actions but…
A post by me on the Mishcon de Reya website – the government has declined to bring into operation Article 80(2) of the (UK) GDPR, but does that mean that the Supreme Court will be more likely to uphold the Court of Appeal judgment in Lloyd v Google?
Filed under Data Protection, Data Protection Act 2018, DCMS, GDPR, UK GDPR
UK GDPR Resource
My firm Mishcon de Reya have created a version of the UK’s post-Brexit version of GDPR as there isn’t yet an official version. What’s more, we’ve added in links to the Recitals, and made it freely available.
The announcement is here. The actual UK GDPR is here.
Ain’t we kind?
Filed under Data Protection, GDPR, UK GDPR
Search and (don’t) destroy
Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert (MSE) site reports that over £1m is apparently held by Highways England (HE) in respect of Dartford Crossing pre-paid online accounts (Freedom of Information requests were apparently used to establish the amount). It is of course by no means uncommon for money to lie dormant in money accounts – for instance, banks across the world hold fantastic sums which never get claimed. MSE itself suggests elsewhere that the total amount in the UK alone might be around £15bn – but what these FOI requests to HE also revealed is an approach to retention of personal data which may not comply with HE’s legal obligations.
People appear to have received penalty charges after assuming that their pre-paid accounts – in credit when they were last used – would still cover the crossing charge (even where the drivers had been informed that their accounts had been closed for lack of use). MSE reports the case of Richard Riley, who
had been notified by email that his account would be closed, but he’d wrongly assumed it would be reactivated when he next made the crossing (this is only the case if you cross again within 90 days of being notified). On looking into it further, Richard also realised he had £16 in his closed account
However, HE apparently explained to MSE that
…it’s unable to reopen automatically closed accounts or automatically refund account-holders because it has to delete personal data to comply with data protection rules.
This cannot be right. Firstly, as the MSE article goes on to explain, if someone suspects or discovers that they have credit in a closed Dartford Crossing account, they can telephone HE and “any money will be paid back to the debit or credit card which was linked to the account. If this isn’t possible, a refund will be issued by cheque.”
So HE must retain some personal data which enables them to confirm whose money it is that they hold. But if it is true that HE feels that data protection law requires them to delete personal data which would otherwise enable them to refund account-holders when accounts are closed, then I fear that they are misreading two of the key principles of that law.
Article 5(1)(e) of the UK GDPR (the “storage limitation principle”) requires that personal data be “kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed” (emphasis added), and Article 5(1)(c) ( the “data minimisation principle”) requires that personal data be “limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed” (emphasis added). Both of these make clear that where personal data is still needed for the purposes for which it is processed, then it can (and should) be retained. And when one adds the point, under Article 5(1)(c), that personal data should also be “adequate” for the purposes for which it is processed, it becomes evident that unnecessary deletion of personal data which causes a detriment or damage to the data subject can in itself be an infringement.
This matter is, of course, on a much lower level of seriousness than, for instance, the unnecessary destruction of landing cards of members of the Windrush Generation, or recordings of witnesses in the Ireland Mother and Baby Homes enquiry, but it strikes me that it is – in general – a subject that is crying out for guidance (and where necessary enforcement) by the Information Commissioner. Too many people feel, it seems, that “data protection” means they have to delete, or erase or destroy personal data.
Sometimes, that is the worst thing to do.
The views in this post (and indeed most posts on this blog) are my personal ones, and do not represent the views of any organisation I am involved with.
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