Category: ICO

Blog: Data ethics and the digital economy

boss

By Simon McDougall, Executive Director – Technology Policy and Innovation, ICO 18 November 2019 How do we balance the interests of society against individual rights, on issues like facial recognition technology? How do we allocate rights and responsibilities in a world of connected devices and real-time automated decisions? How much thought does the law require organisations to put into what is ‘right’, and what their customers would reasonably expect to happen to their data? We face an increasing number of these types of questions, as we consider the practical implications of…

Blog: Why special category personal data needs to be handled even more carefully

boss

By Ian Hulme, Director for Regulatory Assurance. 14 November 2019 Imagine if your medical records, information about your sex life or your political opinions were put into the public domain so anyone could see them. When personal data is shared by mistake the effects can be extremely damaging. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) recognises that some types of personal data are very sensitive and states that data controllers must give it extra protection. This is known as special category data. Special category data is information concerning a person’s: health;…

How to Turn a $17 Million ICO Into $104 Million: The Cosmos Story

boss

The Interchain Foundation (ICF) raised $17 million in April 2017 to shepherd the development of the Cosmos network, a system for making blockchains talk to each other. Following the sale of its ATOM token, the ICF has funded a cast of supporting players, like Agoric Systems Operating Company (which the ICF invested in for traditional equity) and Tendermint, to build the underpinnings of the project’s interoperable aspirations: the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. The goal is to be well-positioned for a multi-chain future. “I could have a contract on one chain…

Blog: Live facial recognition technology – police forces need to slow down and justify its use

boss

By Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner. As far back as Sir Robert Peel, the powers of the police have always been seen as dependent on public support of their actions. It’s an ideal starting point as we consider uses of technology like live facial recognition (LFR). How far should we, as a society, consent to police forces reducing our privacy in order to keep us safe? That was the starting point to my office’s investigation into the trials of LFR by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and South Wales Police (SWP).…

Statement on an agreement reached between Facebook and the ICO

boss

In 2017 the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) commenced a formal investigation into the misuse of personal data in political campaigns. As part of that investigation, on 24 October 2018, the ICO issued a monetary penalty notice under section 55A of the Data Protection Act 1998 against Facebook Inc and Facebook Ireland Limited (together, “Facebook”), in the sum of £500,000 (the “MPN”). The MPN identified suspected failings related to compliance with the UK data protection principles covering lawful processing of data and data security. On 21 November 2018, Facebook filed an…

final considerations and next steps

boss

As the initial Call for Input into the development of the ICO AI Auditing Framework comes to an end, Simon McDougall, Executive Director for Technology and Innovation, reflects on some of the overarching themes that have emerged in the first phase of our work.  This update draws our initial Call for Input on developing the ICO Auditing Framework for AI to a close. Over the last eight months, we have used this blog to share our early thinking on the key data protection risks that we believe AI could generate…