back to article ICO boss calls for EU-style data protection rules post-Brexit

The UK’s new information commissioner reckons that a post-Brexit Britain should adopt data protection laws similar to those of, er... the EU. Elizabeth Denham made the comments during her first speech (transcript here) as UK information Commissioner at an event in London last week. Denham said the EU’s General Data Protection …

  1. mark 120

    We'll put in place exactly the same regulation, only we'll call it the 'Great British Data Protection Regulation' so the Brexit crowd think they've taken back control.

    1. Warm Braw

      No, don't do that. I really want to see the response of the "sovereignty" crowd to being told by a Canadian to toe the Brussels line.

      1. AMBxx Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Why do Remainers lack ambition? Now's the time to start shouting about having better data protection, not just the same crap foisted on us by the EU.

        1. sabroni Silver badge
          Thumb Down

          FFS

          However you voted in the referendum can we stop with the pointless name calling please? The decision was clear but the majority was hardly overwhelming. 52% is over half but it's not the massive mandate some seem to think it was, though it is a mandate. There's millions of people on both sides.

          Whatever, we need a data protection law in some form. We should be talking about the specifics of this legislation and what we need it to do, not repeating the same tedious name calling.

        2. Len

          Of course having something even better than the EU regulation would be very nice to have, unfortunately, this being Britain, the chances of that are absolutely zero. Some big tech firms will just buy the legislation that suits them by paying an unelected cabinet minister and we're fucked.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            "Some big tech firms will just buy the legislation that suits them"

            This is considerably less likely than having the legislation that suits May, which is on the low side of SFA.

  2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    I doubt her Ladyship will go with it. Despite being a Remainer, at least in name, she was never happy about anything like this coming out of Europe when she was at the Home Office. She's unlikely to have changed her spots.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      I don't believe she was ever a 'remainer', her ideas about robbing us of the Human Rights Act were always dependent on leaving the ECHR, which is a prerequisite for membership of the EU.

      She took a gamble on pretending to be in the 'remain' camp so that if the vote went the way people didn't expect it to (as it did), she would be in a good position to take over from Cameron (as she did).

      This is the opposite of the 'Boris gambit' which is to pretend to be pro-leave and expect to lose, in order to secure support from anti-EU elements of the Tory party in their next leadership election. This also explains why he didn't stand when Cameron resigned (he wasn't expecting the Brexit win, so didn't yet have all the pieces in place in order to be prepared to win).

      Machiavellian bunch of parasites the lot of them, but as long as they control (or are supported by) large swathes of the mainstream media, they will remain in control of this country, robbing the poor and giving to the rich like an inverted Robin Hood (this also explains Michael Gove, and why he looks like the organs are on the outside)

      1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        "I don't believe she was ever a 'remainer', her ideas about robbing us of the Human Rights Act were always dependent on leaving the ECHR, which is a prerequisite for membership of the EU."

        Whilst I agree with your general argument there's no way out of the ECHR. There's more than the EU treaties involved and I'm sure she was always aware of that. But getting out of the jurisdication of the ECJ and the EU's rules on data protection was a different matter

  3. alain williams Silver badge

    Lobbying starts now

    by large corporates who find data protection a pain and want to be able to play fast and loose with personal information. The message will be a bit more subtle of course: talk about reducing the DP compliance burden; helping trade in data with the USA, ... MPs will want to please those who pay them for ''consultancy'', etc, and may help by slashing the ICO budget so that it cannot afford to investigate wrong doers (except, of course, where politically convenient); maybe the max charge for a Subject Access Request raised to £1,000.

    T May will want to weaken Data Protection, allow her spymasters to do what they want.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lobbying starts now

      "T May will want to weaken Data Protection, allow her spymasters to do what they want."

      Her spymaster are already exempt, no need to weaken it.

      I personally look at the GDPR that the ICO need to push through as having a mix of ISO27001/ 27002/ 27005/ SSAE 16 Type 2 reporting, and add in a generous dash of chilli powder.

      If your systems are so bad that you know they will fail the general principles of security and privacy, then you shouldn't have client data and be banned from touching client data. Anyone pedaling crap software systems and wont update them, good luck in selling that after May 2018. I'm pretty sure the legal companies will be warming up their engines if they can get a chunk of a 4% fine against a big corporate for non compliance, it makes no sense in the ICO doing the work when we already have an ediscovery economy who can pick up the work. The ICO can pass out the budget between the law firms, the legal services companies and when they win the GDPR cases, make the model self funding and point them at europe and the rest of the world.

    2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Lobbying starts now

      "by large corporates who find data protection a pain and want to be able to play fast and loose with personal information."

      In fact there's likely to be more lobbying by big UK corporates who want to be compatible with the EU so as not to lose business from there. Which makes "Her spymaster are already exempt, no need to weaken it." an interesting thought. If When Privacy Figleaf gets torn down by the next iteration of the ECJ and something else - maybe even something effective enough to prevent data export to the US - gets put in its place the UK might then find itself included unless things change,

      1. H in The Hague

        Re: Lobbying starts now

        "In fact there's likely to be more lobbying by big UK corporates who want to be compatible with the EU so as not to lose business from there."

        And who don't want to have to deal with the hassle of having both UK and EU regulations with subtle differences = major headache and opportunities for costly mistakes. (In my opinion that's one of the major Brexit issues and at loggerheads with "we want less red tape".)

    3. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Lobbying starts now

      by large corporates who find data protection a pain

      Two edged sword I am afraid. While it "may be a pain", it is also an essential pain to trade with Europe. So the corporations are not likely to try to purchase something that puts that into jeopardy. UK is not USA, it will not have the political clout to put in failed Shields and defend them for a decade until the court challenges are done and dusted.

      While at it, with the UK not being around, the Eu data protection is likely to be tightened significantly. Same as tax avoidance, pesticide control and god knows what else UK opposed on behalf of our American corporate owners.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pretty simple I'd have thought...

    ...conform to GPDR or don't expect any EU country to allow their citizens' personal data to be stored or processed here by businesses working within the EU (see "failure of Safe Harbor"). That would pretty much be a game-breaker for multi-national banks etc.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Pretty simple I'd have thought...

      That would pretty much be a game-breaker for multi-national banks etc.

      Just as much as the loss of passporting rights to the EU, which we seem to be barrelling headlong into...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pretty simple I'd have thought...

        Just as much as the loss of passporting rights to the EU, which we seem to be barrelling headlong into...

        I thought from your previous posts you regarded the banks as capitalist pigdogs who would be first up against the wall? So surely it isn't a big problem that the spivs of the city won't be able to do business abroad?

        1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

          Re: Pretty simple I'd have thought...

          I thought from your previous posts you regarded the banks as capitalist pigdogs who would be first up against the wall? So surely it isn't a big problem that the spivs of the city won't be able to do business abroad?

          Whilst it's true that I have no particular love for people who earn obscene salaries, essentially for knowing the right people, I'm also no so naïve as to think that strangling what is a noticeable part of the British economy isn't going to harm the treasury. You can be certain, that under a Tory government, the resulting cuts in funding, or increased taxes, won't hit the rich, they will be targeted as always at those who are least able to afford them.

          In fact, we'll probably end up subsidising the city traders, out of general taxation, in order to keep them happy and in an attempt to prevent companies from moving to the continent (where they will be able to still trade tariff-free within Europe, as well as having 'all the advantages' of being able to trade with the rest of the world too).

    2. Len

      Re: Pretty simple I'd have thought...

      It would just mean that banks operating in Britain will keep the processing of all customer data (including their British customers) in the EU. Their UK branch will just be a basic subsidiary for legal purposes.

      The only exception would be British owned banks only operating in the UK but, the way things are looking at the moment, I don't think we'll have that many British owned banks left in a few years.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yet another ICO chocolate teapot.

    What a farce.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Britain outside the EU

    Could become a privacy free haven. Like a tax haven but different.

    After all Nanny Theresa knows best.

    And knows what you know...

  7. Yes Me Silver badge
    Angel

    Easy fix

    There's an easy fix: allow Parliament to do its job and cancel Brexit: sign here.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Re: Easy fix

      If over 4 million people signing a petition for a second referendum had no effect, why do you think the Tories will give a tinker's cuss about this petition?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) directive..."

    Which is it - regulation or directive? Can't be both.

  9. Jonathan Richards 1

    re Which is it?

    The full title is

    REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

    of 27 April 2016

    on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free

    movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)

    (Text with EEA relevance)

    Source: Eur-LEX

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