The Information Commissioner’s Office has recently been given the power to impose substantial fines on organisations that deliberately or recklessly commit serious breaches of the Data Protection Act. There have been warnings that, in the future, prison sentences may even be imposed. In a report by the Information Commissioner’s Office last year, the number of data protection breaches was described as ‘horrifying’, with 13% of complaints being about internet firms. UK organisations have not been rigorous in their data protection compliance. The power to impose heavy fines should rock organisations into taking their obligations much more seriously. For example, companies must keep data secure, accurate and up-to-date, and destroy it when keeping it is no longer necessary.

Posted: August 20th, 2008 under Business Advisory Services.
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