back to article UK biz baffled by Reding's planned data protection law rewrite: ICO

A large number of British businesses are clueless about many of the main provisions detailed in the European Union's proposed data protection reforms, a new report from the Information Commissioner's Office has claimed. Consultancy firm London Economics - which was commissioned to carry out the research (PDF) on behalf of the …

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  1. Ged T
    Coat

    UK Government concern about an EU member state wide Data and Privacy Protection?

    They are obviously convinced that UK's current Data Protection and Privacy arrangements are SO fantastic, it doesn't need such EU input.

    Personally, I would welcome that fact that my data and privacy would be protected in the same way and with the same recourse to abuse, if required, across the EU. I would have thought, too, that for a country that needs to engage with the EU commercially, to survive economically, governemnt and business would welcome only having the one set of rules and regulations to observe across the EU trading estate...

    Mine's the one with the completely open pockets...

  2. Gordon Pryra
    FAIL

    UK Govt needs a kick in the balls

    Rather than protect our data they would rather attack the mechanisms that would lead to some actual protection.

    The entire attack is just an exercise in misleading the British Public rather than any real issues with the proposals.

    When you work as a contractor on any Govt organisation you immediately see how lax any (if they even bother to have any) data protection actually is.

    From securing data to using documents with the names and addresses of kids in the title of the document.

    The UK govt is just scared of the massive fines they would need to pay and ignoring the reasons WHY they would need to pay those fines

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: UK Govt needs a kick in the balls

      "The UK govt is just scared of the massive fines they would need to pay and ignoring the reasons WHY they would need to pay those fines"

      Why would the government be scared of fines they pay (in the grand scheme of things) to themselves?

      1. Blip

        Re: UK Govt needs a kick in the balls

        @Ledswinger

        The individual causes of the fines may not be particulary newsworthy, whereas the fact that fines are levied is.

  3. Magister

    We haz all your data

    From what I have seen (so not scientific sample) most UK businesses including the really big ones are failing quite dismally as far as the main provisions of the current data protection legislation. Worse, the ICO is toothless and a complete waste of space.

    The UK gov simply don't want to comply with any sensible legislation on this because they are already earning money from selling our data and think that they can earn more.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I am also clueless about what the ICO does

    The ICO what does it do again...

    Phorm - Nothing

    Talk Talk - Nothing

    Blucoat - Nothing again

    Google - oh big company intercepts data - that's all right they are big so lets do nothing and say we investigated and it is OK

    In fact any Telecom company can happily intercept UK communication data while the ICO drinks tea and pockets a very high pay cheque.

    I wonder how much the report cost and who's pal got the job of writing it.

  5. graeme leggett Silver badge

    High costs predicted because....

    they mostly aren't up to speed on current law/requirements (and so have further to go to meet the draft) ?

  6. heyrick Silver badge

    Panic because

    The ICO is toothless and pathetic but local to the country. An EU wide law, on the other hand, might mean prosecution in other parts of the EU and that may hurt after decades of nobody giving a crap and "lessons will be learned" rhetoric.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Panic because

      Isn't prosecution in other parts of the EU is a good thing if it's as a result of an entity here not protecting the data they are handling as they should?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a surprise

    Is this not, by any chance, the same government that was fined a few years ago due to its lax (to say the least) enforcement of an already much watered down implementation of the *old* EU data protection directives?

    No surprise they want nothing to do with the new laws then.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In analytical terms...

    « Graham has previously described Reding's approach to data protection regulation as "anal". »

    I would rather go with anal than half-arsed, thank you very much.

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