Category Archives: enforcement

September 14, 2020 · 12:45 pm

GDPR’s scope – does it extend to China?

The answer to the question in the title is, of course, “yes”, if the processing in question is of personal data of data subjects in the EU, by a controller outside the EU, and related to the monitoring of data subjects’ behaviour as far as their behaviour takes place within the Union.

So, the activities of Zhenhua Data, in compiling its Overseas Key Individual Database, as described in The Mail, will be squarely within the scope of Article 3(2) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Boris Johnson and the Queen are among 40,000 Britons listed on a database compiled by a Chinese tech firm with reported links to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks, it can be disclosed.

Files on senior British politicians including the Prime Minister, members of the Royal Family, UK military officers and their families, and religious leaders are currently being stored by Zhenhua Data, a technology company based in Shenzhen, China as part of a ‘global mass surveillance system on an unprecedented scale’.

It seems difficult to imagine that the processing can possibly comply with GDPR. Where is the Article 14 notice? What is the Article 6 legal basis? Or the Article 9 exception to the general prohibition on processing special categories of data? Or the Article 30 record of processing activities? Or…or…or…?

But here’s the problem with any legislative attempt to extend the scope of laws beyond geographical and jurisdictional borders, to the activities of those who are not consulted, nor assigned rights, nor (in all likelihood) bothered: how does one enforce those laws? In 2018 (oh those heady early GDPR days!) the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) was reported to have told the Washington Post that its practice of only allowing those who paid for its premium subscription to refuse tracking cookies was unlawful. How many figs the WaPo gave is evidenced by a glance at its current subscription model:

(i.e. it appears to have changed nothing.)

Indeed, as the ICO said at the time

We hope that the Washington Post will heed our advice, but if they choose not to, there is nothing more we can do in relation to this matter

If there was nothing ICO could do against a newspaper outside the jurisdiction, consider how unrealistic is the idea that it might enforce against a Chinese company rumoured to work for the Chinese military, and which is said to view its mission as ‘using big data for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”‘.

The logical question, though, which arises is this – in the absence of an effective regulatory scheme to enforce them what exactly is the point of GDPR’s (or even more trenchantly, the UK GDPR’s) extra-territorial scope provisions?

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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Filed under Data Protection, enforcement, Europe, GDPR, Information Commissioner

Tagged as data protection, GDPR, ICO

August 12, 2020 · 12:26 pm

Some PECR figures in light of a new monetary penalty notice

Presented without comment.

21,166,574 unsolicited direct marketing messages

£100,000 monetary penalty

Only £1k in the bank at the last filings

Zero chance of recovery?

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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Filed under Data Protection, enforcement, Information Commissioner, marketing, monetary penalty notice, PECR

Tagged as ICO, PECR

January 3, 2020 · 3:44 pm

Why the big pause? ICO delay agreed re GDPR fines

On the Mishcon website: ICO agrees delay over GDPR fines with both BA and Marriott

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Filed under Data Protection, Data Protection Act 2018, enforcement, GDPR, Information Commissioner, monetary penalty notice

Tagged as DPA, GDPR, ICO

August 15, 2019 · 12:07 pm

The most boring blogpost on this blog?

Although GDPR, and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18), took effect from 25 May 2018, it has been notable that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has continued to exercise its enforcement powers under the prior law. There is no problem with this, and it is only to be expected, given that regulatory investigations can take some time. The DPA18 contains transitional provisions which mean that certain sections of the Data Protection Act 1998 continue to have effect, despite its general repeal. This is the reason, for instance, why the ICO could serve its recent enforcement notice on Hudson Bay Finance Ltd using the powers in section 40 of the 1998 – paragraph 33 of Schedule 20 to the DPA18 provides that section 40 of the 1998 Act continues to apply if the ICO is satisfied that the controller contravened the old data protection principles before the rest of the 1998 Act was repealed.

However, what is noticeable in the Hudson Bay Finance Ltd enforcement notice is that it says that it was prompted by a request for assessment by the complainant, apparently made on 21 September 2018, purportedly made under section 42 of the 1998 Act. I say “purportedly” because the transitional provisions in Schedule 20 of DPA18 require the ICO to consider a request for assessment made before 25 May 2018, but in all other respects, section 42 is repealed. Accordingly, as a matter of law, a data subject can (after 25 May 2018) no longer exercise their right to request an assessment under section 42 of the 1998 Act.

This is all rather academic, because it appears to me that the ICO has discretion – even if it does not have an obligation – to consider a complaint by a data subject relating to compliance with the 1998 Act. And ICO clearly (as described above) has the power still to take enforcement action for contraventions of the 1998 Act. But no one ever told me I can’t use my blog to make arid academic points.

The views in this post (and indeed all 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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Filed under Data Protection, Data Protection Act 2018, enforcement, Information Commissioner

Tagged as data protection, DPA, ICO

June 19, 2019 · 10:18 am

Information Tribunal rejects data subject appeals under new Data Protection Act

The Information Tribunal has recently heard the first applications under the Data Protection Act 2018 for orders regarding the Information Commissioner’s handling of data protection complaints. As I write on the Mishcon de Reya website, the Tribunal has peremptorily dismissed them.

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Filed under Data Protection, enforcement, GDPR, Information Commissioner, Information Tribunal

Tagged as data protection, DPA, ICO, Tribunal

January 22, 2018 · 6:34 pm

On the breach

Failure to notify the ICO in a timely manner of a personal data breach under PECR carries a £1000 fixed penalty notice – why not something similar under wider data protection law?

When the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”) were amended in 2011 to implement the Citizens’ Rights Directive, an obligation was placed upon providers of a public electronic communications service (“service providers”) to notify personal data breaches to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) “without undue delay”, and in 2013 article 2(2) of European Commission Regulation 611/2013 provided , in terms, that “without undue delay” would mean “no later than 24 hours after the detection of the personal data breach, where feasible”. The 2011 amendment regulations also gave the ICO the power to serve a fixed penalty notice of £1000 on a service provider which failed to comply with notification obligations.

Thus it was that in 2016 both EE and Talk Talk were served with such penalties, with the latter subsequently unsuccessfully appealing to the Information Tribunal, and thus it was that, last week, SSE Energy Supply were served with one. The SSE notice is interesting reading – the personal data breach in question (defined in amended regulation 2 of PECR as “a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed in connection with the provision of a public electronic communications service”) consisted solely of the sending of one customer email (containing name and account number) to the wrong email address, and it appears that it was reported to the ICO two days after SSE realised (so, effectively, 24 hours too late). If this appears harsh, it is worth noting that the ICO has discretion over whether to impose the penalty or not, and, in determining that she should, the Commissioner took into account a pour encourager les autres argument that

the underlying objective in imposing a monetary penalty is to promote compliance with PECR. The requirement to notify…provides an important opportunity…to assess whether a service provider is complying with its obligations under PECR…A monetary penalty in this case would act as a general encouragement towards compliance…

As any fule kno, the looming General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) expands to all data controllers this obligation to notify the ICO of qualifying personal data breaches. Under GDPR the definition is broadly similar to that in PECR (“a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed”) and a breach qualifies for the notification requirements in all cases unless it is “unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons”. Under GDPR, the window for notification is 72 hours.

But under GDPR, and under the Data Protection Bill currently in Parliament, there is no provision for similar fixed penalty notices for notification failures (although, of course, a failure to notify a breach could constitute a general infringement under article 83, attracting a theoretical non-fixed maximum fine of €10m or 2% of global annual turnover). Is Parliament missing a trick here? If the objective of the PECR fixed penalty notice is to promote compliance with PECR, then why not a similar fixed penalty notice to promote compliance with wider data protection legislation? In 2016/17 the ICO received 1005 notifications by service providers of PECR breaches (up 63% on the previous year) and analysing/investigating these will be no small task. The figure under GDPR will no doubt be much higher, but that is surely not a reason not to provide for a punitive fixed penalty scheme for those who fail to comply with the notification requirements (given what the underlying objective of notification is)?

I would be interested to know if anyone is aware of discussions on this, and whether, as it reaches the Commons, there is any prospect of the Data Protection Bill changing to incorporate fixed penalties for notification failures.

The views in this post (and indeed all 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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Filed under Breach Notification, Data Protection, Data Protection Bill, enforcement, GDPR, Information Commissioner, monetary penalty notice, PECR

Tagged as data protection, GDPR, ICO, PECR

October 29, 2017 · 10:22 am

This old world will never change

Complacency about data protection in the NHS won’t change unless ICO takes firm action

Back in September 2016 I spoke to Vice’s Motherboard, about reports that various NHS bodies were still running Windows XP, and I said

If hospitals are knowingly using insecure XP machines and devices to hold and otherwise process patient data they may well be in serious contravention of their [data protection] obligations

Subsequently, in May this year, the Wannacry exploit indicated that those bodies were indeed vulnerable, with multiple NHS Trusts and GP practices subject to ransomware demands and major system disruption.

That this had enormous impact on patients is evidenced by a new report on the incident from the National Audit Office (NAO), which shows that

6,912 appointments had been cancelled, and [it is] estimated [that] over 19,000 appointments would have been cancelled in total. Neither the Department nor NHS England know how many GP appointments were cancelled, or how many ambulances and patients were diverted from the five accident and emergency departments that were unable to treat some patients

The NAO investigation found that the Department of Health and the Cabinet Office had written to Trusts

saying it was essential they had “robust plans” to migrate away from old software, such as Windows XP, by April 2015. [And in] March and April 2017, NHS Digital had issued critical alerts warning organisations to patch their systems to prevent WannaCry

Although the NAO report is critical of the government departments themselves for failure to do more, it does correctly note that individual healthcare organisations are themselves responsible for the protection of patient information. This is, of course, correct: under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) each organisation is a data controller, and responsible for, among other things, for ensuring that appropriate technical and organisational measures are taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data.

Yet, despite these failings, and despite the clear evidence of huge disruption for patients and the unavoidable implication that delays in treatment across all NHS services occurred, the report was greeted by the following statement by Keith McNeil, Chief Clinical Information Officer for NHS England

As the NAO report makes clear, no harm was caused to patients and there were no incidents of patient data being compromised or stolen

In fairness to McNeil, he is citing the report itself, which says that “NHS organisations did not report any cases of harm to patients or of data being compromised or stolen” (although that is not quite the same thing). But the report continues

If the WannaCry ransomware attack had led to any patient harm or loss of data then NHS England told us that it would expect trusts to report cases through existing reporting channels, such as reporting data loss direct to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in line with existing policy and guidance on information governance

So it appears that the evidence for no harm arising is because there were no reports of “data loss” to the ICO. This emphasis on “data loss” is frustrating, firstly because personal data does not have to be lost for harm to arise, and it is difficult to understand how delays and emergency diversions would not have led to some harm, but secondly because it is legally mistaken: the DPA makes clear that data security should prevent all sorts of unauthorised processing, and removal/restriction of access is clearly covered by the definition of “processing”.

It is also illustrative of a level of complacency which is deleterious to patient health and safety, and a possible indicator of how the Wannacry incidents happened in the first place. Just because data could not be accessed as a result the malware does not mean that this was not a very serious situation.

It’s not clear whether the ICO will be investigating further, or taking action as a result of the NAO report (their response to my tweeted question – “We will be considering the contents of the report in more detail. We continue to liaise with the health sector on this issue” was particularly unenlightening). I know countless dedicated, highly skilled professionals working in the fields of data protection and information governance in the NHS, they’ve often told me their frustrations with senior staff complacency. Unless the ICO does take action (and this doesn’t necessarily have to be by way of fines) these professionals, but also – more importantly – patients, will continue to be let down, and in the case of the latter, put at the risk of harm.

The views in this post (and indeed all 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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Filed under 7th principle, Data Protection, data security, enforcement, Information Commissioner, NHS

Tagged as data protection, DPA, ICO, NHS

July 11, 2017 · 6:56 am

An enforcement gap?

ICO wants 200 more staff for GDPR , but its Board think there’s a risk it will instead be losing them

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is, without doubt, a major reconfiguring of European data protection law. And quite rightly, in the lead-up to its becoming fully applicable on 25 May next year, most organisations are considering how best they can comply with its obligations, and, where necessary, effecting changes to achieve that compliance. As altruistic as some organisations are, a major driver for most is the fear that, under GDPR, regulatory sanctions can be severe. Regulators (in the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)) will retain powers to force organisations to do, or to stop, something (equivalent to an enforcement notice under our current Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)), but they will also have the power to levy civil administrative fines of up to €20 million, or 4% of annual global turnover. Much media coverage has, understandably, if misleadingly, focused on these increased “fining” powers (the maximum monetary under the DPA is £500,000). I use the word “misleadingly”, because it is by no means clear that regulators will use the full fining powers available to them: GDPR provides regulators with many other options (see Article 58) and recital 129 in particular states that measures taken should be

appropriate, necessary and proportionate in view of ensuring compliance with this Regulation [emphasis added]

Commentators stressing the existence of these potentially huge administrative fines should be referred to these provisions of GDPR.

But in the UK, at least, another factor has to be born in mind, and that is the regulator’s capacity to effectively enforce the law. In March this year, the Information Commissioner herself, Elizabeth Denham, told the House of Lords EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee that with the advent of GDPR she was going to need more resource

With the coming of the General Data Protection Regulation we will have more responsibilities, we will have new enforcement powers. So we are putting in new measures to be able to address our new regulatory powers…We have given the government an estimate that we will need a further 200 people in order to be able to do the job.

Those who rather breathlessly reported this with headlines such as “watchdog to hire hundreds more staff” seem to have forgotten the old parental adage of “I want doesn’t always get”. For instance, I want a case of ’47 Cheval Blanc delivered to my door by January Jones, but I’m not planning a domestic change programme around the possibility.

In fact, the statement by Denham might fall into a category best described as “aspirational”, or even “pie in the sky”, when one notes that the ICO Management Board recently received an item on corporate risk, the minutes from which state that

Concern was expressed about the risk of losing staff as GDPR implementation came closer. There remained a risk that the ICO might lose staff in large numbers, but to-date the greater risk was felt to be that the ICO could lose people in particular roles who, because of their experience, were especially hard to replace.

The ICO has long been based in the rather upmarket North West town of Wilmslow (the detailed and parochial walking directions from the railway station to the office have always rather amused me). There is going to be a limited pool of quality candidates there, and ICO pays poorly: current vacancies show case officers being recruited at starting salary of £19,527, and I strongly suspect case officers are the sort of extra staff Denham is looking at.

If ICO is worried about GDPR being a risk to staff retention (no doubt on the basis that better staff will get poached by higher paying employers, keen to have people on board with relevant regulatory experience), and apparently can’t pay a competitive wage, how on earth is it going to retain (or replace) them, and then recruit 200 more, from those sleepy Wilmslow recruitment fairs?

I write this blogpost, I should stress, not in order to mock or criticise Denham’s aspirations – she is absolutely right to want more staff, and to highlight the fact to Westminster. Rather, I write it because I agree with her, and because, unless someone stumps up some significant funding, I fear that the major privacy benefits that GDPR should bring for individuals (and the major sanctions against organisations for serious non-compliance) will not be realised.

The views in this post (and indeed all 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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Filed under Data Protection, enforcement, GDPR, Information Commissioner, Uncategorized

Category Archives: enforcement

Some PECR figures in light of a new monetary penalty notice

The most boring blogpost on this blog?

This old world will never change

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