ICO Calls For More Practical Approach To Data Protection

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has called for a more practical approach to data protection regulation as technology progresses.

Speaking at the European Conference of Data Protection Authorities, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham commented that regulators must not get left behind as technology changes how personal information is used.

Graham said: 'Governments have gone digital, keen to find efficiencies in the delivery of joined up public services. And now there's the security dimension, with politicians claiming that public safety is an absolute right, while privacy is a right that may need to be qualified.

'And that's where we need to get practical. Because the challenges are to how we do things, not what we are there for. If we want to be effective doing what we do, we are going to have to learn to do some things differently.'

Graham also highlighted the publication of its research into what data protection rights the public want and what the public want from data protection authorities.

The commonly recurring themes of what the public want from data protection are: control over their personal data; transparency - they want to know what organisations will do with their personal data; to understand the different purposes and benefits of...