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Organisations that recklessly or deliberately commit breaches under the Data Protection Act can now be fined by Britain’s privacy watchdog. Under the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, the Information Commissioner’s Office has the right to financially punish any outfit found in serious breach of the 1998 law. The tougher sanctions in the act, which won royal assent on Friday, are seen as the first step to repairing the public’s dwindling confidence in how their data is handled. They also send the strongest signal yet to organisations that a “cavalier” approach to customers’ data security is “completely unacceptable” and that it must become a priority. David Smith, deputy information commissioner, also said the ICO’s new power reflects the political consensus, as the toughening up of the data laws won cross party support. But it was the office not MPs that first demanded that organisations should be fined, both before and after a string of “unacceptable” data leaks in the public sector. Last month, HSBC lost an unencrypted computer disc containing the details of 320,000 customers, seeming to prove right the 85% of us who have ‘no confidence’ in our personal data handlers. May 12, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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