The ICO Data Protection Practitioners’ Conference took place on 6 March. It highlighted several initiatives that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will be taking in the coming months, including:
- Working on privacy seal accreditation at EU level and will use this work to inform its own work in the area of privacy seals, although this is not a priority for the ICO.
- Reviewing feedback on its draft guidance on GDPR consent. The consultation closes 31 March 2017.
- Providing advice and guidance on contracts, liability and data processors as part of its Overview of the General Data Protection Regulation.
- Publishing its international strategy during April 2017, which will set out the ICO’s key international priorities and will be of interest to companies with cross-border data flows.
- Supporting new mechanisms, such as codes and certificates, to support international data transfers, although not all of this will be in place before 25 May 2018.
- Looking at its code of practice on data subjects access requests in the light of recent Court of Appeal decisions.
- Reviewing how social media is being used to profile individuals and whether individuals are being disadvantaged by this.
In addition, the ICO plans to publish guidance on data protection officers within the next six months. This guidance will be particularly useful to organisations that need to appoint a DPO as part of their accountability programme for GDPR compliance.
Sara Catley
