26.02.14
New privacy guidelines for organisations of all sizes
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published an updated privacy impact assessments code of practice to help organisations respect people’s privacy when changing the way they handle people’s information.
A study last year showed that only 40% of people believe organisations handle their information in a fair and proper way.
The ICO says privacy impact assessments can be an important means of retaining trust and its head of policy, Steve Wood, explained: “The development of projects involving the processing of large amounts of personal information is no longer the preserve of the public sector and large businesses. Today even an app developer can be developing a product in their bedroom that involves using thousands of people’s information.
“This is why we have published our updated privacy impact assessments code of practice to help organisations of all sizes ensure that the privacy risks associated with a project are identified and addressed at an early stage during a project’s development.
“The updated code is designed to ensure that privacy impact assessments fit into the project development process, allowing organisations to follow a privacy by design approach to developing new ways of using people’s information. Successfully adopting this approach can only be good for consumers and for business and can enable organisations to demonstrate their compliance with the Data Protection Act.”
The publication of today’s code follows an external consultation carried out between August and November 2013.
Visit www.ico.org.uk
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