Category: News

Today, the Government will whip its controversial Investigatory Powers Bill (IP Bill) through its Parliamentary Report stage; the Bill, in part, provides powers that permit the national security agencies to amass bulk personal datasets where the majority of personal data in a bulk dataset relates to data subjects who are not of interest to these agencies. The Government has so far ignored the data protection recommendations of the draft IP Bill Committee which asked for important data protection considerations to

If a=b and b=c then it follows that a=c. So, how does this set of simple equations relate to data protection? Well if direct marketeers, privacy advocates and supervisory authorities recognised that a=c then most of the debate concerning data protection and the marketing purpose would be settled. Don’t believe me? Just follow the argument under the current Act (DPA) or indeed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). All across Europe (and especially the UK) there has been a debate

If Member States can, by law, exercise legislative “flexibility” when implementing 50+ Articles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), how can the Regulation ever become harmonised across European Union? Pose this important question another way: given that the UK Government intends to use legislative flexibility to the maximum in favour of the interests of controllers (see report on meeting with the Minister in January; references), how do we know that the UK will not enact something that could be

This brief blog is to explain why, “in” or “out”, the UK has to implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is important given that some organisations might think that a “Leave” vote might change matters with respect to the GDPR compliance (especially as the Cabinet Minister responsible for GDPR implementation, John Whittingdale, is a prominent “outer”). Obviously, if the vote in June is for “Stay” then the UK remains a Member of the European Union (EU) and the

For a long time, I have been arguing that the national security agencies should apply the data protection principles to their processing of personal data subject, if necessary, to exemptions from subject access and fair processing requirements. Today’s report from the Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (DIP) supports that position. In summary, if the criminal intelligence processed by the police relating to serious crime can be subject to most data protection requirements without mishap (since the 1984 Act),