Tag Archives: Data Protection Enforcement

Information Law Review of 2018

It does not seem as though it was a year ago since I sat down to write my review of Information Law in 2017 and to have a brief look ahead into 2018; but somehow we now appear to be in 2019. It was always going to be the case that 2018 was going to be a big year for information law; with the General Data Protection Regulation becoming applicable on 25th May 2018. The 25th May 2018 came and went without the millennium bug style apocalypse that seemed inevitable from the amount of sensationalist writing that was taking place in late 2017 and early 2018.

My review of 2017 started off with the English and Welsh High Court decision on vicarious liability for data protection breaches in Various Claimants v WM Morrisons Supermarket PLC  [2017] EWHC 3113 (QB)This case rumbled on in 2018 and it was considered by the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal heard the appeal and (in remarkably quick time) dismissed the appeal. It is understood that Morrisons have sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court and if permission is granted it is possible that it will feature in a review of Information law in 2019.

In February, the English and Welsh High Court issued an interesting privacy judgment when it considered an action for compensation arising out of “Can’t Pay? We’ll Take it Away’; a fly-on-the wall documentary following High Court Enforcement Officers in their work enforcing court orders relating to debt and housing cases. The Court had the tricky job of balancing the privacy rights of individuals against the rights of television companies in respect of freedom of expression; however, the High Court decided that the balance in this particular case fell in favour of the claimant’s privacy rights. The High Court’s decision was appealed to the Court of Appeal; looking specifically at the issue of quantifying the level of damages. That appeal was heard by the Court of Appeal in early December and should provide useful guidance on calculating damages in the privacy sphere.

Facebook, Cambridge Analytical and Aggregate AIQ all featured quite heavily in 2018 in terms of privacy and data protection matters. Facebook was served with a monetary penalty in the amount of £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 and Aggregate AIQ was also the recipient of the first Enforcement Notice under the Data Protection Act 2018 (which was narrowed in scope by the Information Commissioner following an appeal by AIQ; which was subsequently dropped). Facebook lodged an appeal against the Monetary Penalty Notice with the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) in November 2018. If and when a decision is reached by the Tribunal in respect of that appeal, it will feature on this blog.

Arising out of the same wide-ranging investigation by the ICO as the Facebook penalty and the AIQ Enforcement Notice was an Information Notice served on the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which was appealed to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights). The Tribunal dismissed the appeal by UKIP in July.

In April there was yet another important decision from the English and Welsh High Court in respect of Privacy and Data Protection. A little over four years after the European Court of Justice decision on the Right to Be Forgotten in Google Spain, Mr Justice Warby handed down his judgment in NT1 & NT2 v Google; this represented the first decision of a UK Court in respect of the Right to Be Forgotten. An appeal was lodged in respect of this case and was due to be heard just before Christmas; however, it was reported that the case was settled on the day of the appeal.

The issue of compensation to identifiable third parties in the context of data protection breaches was considered by the English and Welsh Court of Appeal. This case adds to the helpful privacy and data protection case law emanating from the English and Welsh courts.

Another interesting development that we saw during the course of 2018 was a director being disqualified indirectly in connection with privacy and data protection matters. It does show that directors can be held personally liable for privacy and data protection transgressions of limited companies. This was underlined by the amendments to the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 which now enable the Commissioner to serve a monetary penalty on directors (and others associated with companies) in certain circumstances.

In Scotland, the Court of Session made new rules which should make appealing decisions of the Scottish Information Commissioner in respect of requests for environmental information more financially viable.

Litigation in respect information law matters in Scotland remains limited. The majority of litigation on these areas arises out of England and Wales. Perhaps in 2019, we will begin to see more litigation in Scotland on information law matters. Hopefully the new rules in the Court of Session will see more appeals in respect of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and hopefully the introduction of Group proceedings in the Court of Session through the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 will help with an increase in data protection and privacy litigation in Scotland.

In terms of 2018 Scottish cases, not long before Christmas the Court of Session treated us to a judgment in an appeal concerning vexatious requests under the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002. Beggs v Scottish Information Commissioner considered the correct approach to be taken when applying section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Looking ahead to 2019; the big issue on the horizon is Brexit. Much of what is discussed on this blog as “information law” derives from European law and so Brexit will likely have an impact upon that. We are still unsure as to the terms that we will be leaving on. A withdrawal Agreement has been negotiated between the European Union and the United Kingdom; however, there is  still a way to go with that – and it looks quite likely that the UK Parliament will rejected the Withdrawal Agreement in its current form. If we end up leaving with no Withdrawal Agreement in place then this will cause considerable difficulties for UK business which rely upon the transfer of personal data from elsewhere within the European Union; it will also cause problems for public bodies.

In terms of making the law work after Brexit, we were treated by the Government (in between Christmas and New Year) to a draft of The Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. These Regulations will make changes to the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 in light of the United Kingdom no longer being a member of the European Union. I will, of course, look at these draft Regulations in more detail soon.

I will attempt to address information law matters as they unfold in 2019 on the Information Law Blog from Inksters Solicitors.

Alistair Sloan

If you would like advice or assistance with Privacy and Data Protection matters or with UK and Scottish Freedom of Information requests contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or you can E-mail him.


Data Protection and Privacy Enforcement: November 2018

0The year is progressing quickly and we’re now onto looking at November’s enforcement action published by the Information Commissioner’s Office in relation to privacy and data protection matters. We are beginning to see enforcement action under the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA18”) filter through, but the majority is very much still under the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA98”) in respect of breaches which occurred prior to 25 May 2018.

Key Points

  • Carrying out a Data Protection Impact Assessment in the early stages of any project where it is envisaged that personal data will be processed is a useful tool to help highlight privacy and data protection concerns so that they can be addressed in the planning phase. Data protection by design and privacy impact assessments were recommended good practice under the DPA98; however, the GDPR mandates data protection by design and default (Article 25) and the carrying out of data protection impact assessments in certain circumstances (Article 35). Even if the GDPR does not require you to complete a DPIA, it is worthwhile undertaking one in any event – it can also be a helpful document to present to the Commissioner should her office begin any investigation into your organisation.
  • It is important to regularly download an updated version of the Telephone Preference Service list and to do so as close as possible to an intended direct marketing campaign. If you undertake regular direct marketing campaigns then you should probably be downloading the updated list once per month. Relying on an out of date version could mean that you unlawfully call numbers – the cost of regularly obtaining a copy of the TPS list is insignificant compared to the financial penalties that can be issued by the Information Commissioner for contraventions of Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
  • It should go without saying that if the Information Commissioner takes enforcement action against you for contravening privacy and data protection laws then you should ensure that you take adequate remedial measures to ensure that the contravention doesn’t happen again.
  • If you obtain a list of telephone numbers to call for marketing purposes from a third party the obligation rests with you to ensure that you have lawful authority to make (or instruct others on you behalf to make) calls to each intended number.
  • Controllers may no longer be required to notify the Commissioners of their processing of personal data; however, they are still required to make payment to the Commissioner of a fee. Those who either (a) don’t know they are due to pay  a fee; or (b) miss paying their fee and rectify the matter once the Commissioner has contacted them about their non-payment will likely not face formal enforcement action, but those who continue to fail to pay the fee once the Commissioner has contacted them can expect to be required to pay a financial penalty for failure to pay the fee.

Enforcement Action published by the ICO during November 2018

Metropolitan Police Service
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (MPS) was served with an Enforcement Notice by the Information Commissioner [pdf] requiring the MPS to take a number of specified steps; including the conducting of a data protection impact assessment, in respect of its Gangs Matrix. The Gangs Matrix is part of the MPS’ ongoing effort to reduce the incidences of crime in London arising from gangs. The Notice only emphasises the Commissioner’s primary concerns in respect of the MPS’ compliance with the data protection principles, rather than listing every single contravention. The Notice makes reference to contraventions of the first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh data protection principles

DM Bedroom Design Ltd
The Information Commissioner served DM Bedroom Design Ltd with a monetary penalty in the sum of £160,000 [pdf] and also served it with an Enforcement Notice [pdf] after finding that the company had contravened Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”). This was not the first time that the company had received a monetary penalty from the Commissioner for contravening PECR. The company operated an internal suppression list and also advised the Commissioner that it screened lists against the Telephone Preference Service (“TPS”) list; however, the Commissioner found that the company had not downloaded the TPS list since March 2017.

Solartech North East Limited
Solaretech North East Limited (“Solartech”) was served by the Information Commissioner with a monetary penalty in the amount of £90,000 [pdf] and an enforcement notice [pdf]. The Commissioner found that Solartech had contravened Regulation 21 of PECR by making almost 75,000 calls unlawfully to numbers listed with the Telephone Preference Service. Solartech had previously came to the attention of the Commissioner’s office in 2014 and had bene provided with advice from her office as well as subjected to a period of monitoring. Despite this, and further advice and monitoring in 2016/17 Solartech continued to contravene Regulation 21 of PECR. Solartech sought (unsuccessfully) to blame third parties for these contraventions.

Uber
Uber is a popular app which provides taxi services to its users by linking them with Uber drivers in their area. It has bene the subject of many recent legal battles in the Employment field and has now also come to the attention of data protection supervisory authorities in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The Information Commissioner served Uber with a monetary penalty notice in the amount of £385,000 following a cyber attack. [pdf] The Commissioner found that Uber had breached the seventh data protection principle by failing to have in place adequate technical and organisational measures.

Fixed Penalty Notices: Data Protection Fees
The old notification requirement and fee under the DPA98 has gone, but has been replaced with a new data protection fee payable by controllers who are not exempt from the fee. The new fees regulations are found in The Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018. Organisations who are required to pay the fee and fail to do so may be served with a penalty notice by the Commissioner requiring them to pay a fixed penalty calculated in relation to the amount of the fee payable under the Regulations by the controller. The Commissioner has taken enforcement action, in the form of fixed penalty notices, against a number of controllers in the business, manufacturing and finance sectors for failure to pay their data protection fees; even after being contacted by the Commissioner about the unpaid fee. The Commissioner has not published all of the penalty notices, or even a list of controllers subject to enforcement action, but has instead published “example” notices (which read more like templates than examples) for each of the three sectors.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.

Data Protection and Privacy Enforcement: October 2018

Regular readers of this blog will know that every month I look at the published enforcement action taken by the Information Commissioner in respect of privacy and data protection law. The infractions are often very similar and the same key lessons to take away from the enforcement action appear frequently; October’s enforcement action proves no different. There is, however, a mixture of enforcement action taken under the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA98) – in respect of breaches that occurred prior to the 25 May 2018 – and enforcement action taken under the Data Protection Act 2018 (”DPA18).

Key Lessons

  • When the Commissioner’s office makes contact with you in the course of an investigation it is advisable to cooperate with the investigation. The Commissioner has powers to require persons (not just data controllers) to provide her office with information. It is a criminal offence not to comply with an information notice issued by the Commissioner under the DPA98 while a person who fails to comply with an Information Notice served under the DPA18 can be made the subject of an Information Order by the court.
  • Before making telephone calls for the purpose of direct marketing it is essential that organisations check their list against the list held by the Telephone Preference Service. It is against the law to call a number listed with the TPS for the purposes of direct marketing unless you can show that the recipient has not objected, for the time being, to receiving marketing calls from you. The law has recently been changed and the Commissioner will soon be able to serve a monetary penalty on directors of a company for breaches of the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.
  • Any removable media such as CDs and USB memory sticks should be encrypted to prevent unauthorised access to personal data in the event that the media is lost or stolen. Controllers should also consider putting in place technical barriers to ensure that personal data is not unnecessarily being put onto removable media.
  • When drafting privacy statements where you are seeking to obtain consent for direct marketing; it is important to be specific about just what marketing might be sent. It is insufficient to rely upon statements along the lines of “you consent to receive marketing from our carefully selected third party affiliates” and similar.
  • The person who instigates a call is liable for a contravention of PECR, not the person who makes the call. Therefore you cannot avoid liability by engaging a third party contractor to make calls on your behalf. If you have directed that the calls be made then you are liable for any contraventions of PECR. Therefore, companies who engage third parties to undertake telemarketing on their behalf need to ensure that they have in place adequate due diligence to ensure that there are no negligent contraventions of PECR.
  • It’s not enough to simply rely upon your own internal suppression lists when making telephone calls for the purposes of direct marketing; it is also important that call lists as screened against the list maintained by the Telephone Preference Service. It’s also important that companies engaging in telesales regularly obtain an updated version of the list maintained by the TPS and you should never seek to rely upon a version of the list that is more than 28 days old.
  • It can be worthwhile brining appeals against Notices served by the Commissioner – especially where the terms of the notice are unclear. Where reasons are provided for a decision they generally require to be intelligible.

Enforcement action published by the Information Commissioner in October 2018

Oaklands Assist UK Limited
Oaklands Assist UK Limited (“OAUK”) was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice  in the sum of £150,000 [pdf] after the Commissioner found that OAUK had used a public electronic communications service for the purpose of direct marketing in contravention of Regulation 21 of the Privacy and electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”). It appears that OAUK did not initially comply with the Commissioner’s investigation as the penalty notice states that the Commissioner had to serve an Information Notice on OAUK and it only made contact with the Commissioner’s office when they were threated with prosecution for failure to comply with an Information Notice. The Commissioner found that OAUK had made 63,724 direct marketing calls to numbers that were listed on the TPS, in contravention of Regulation 21 of PECR.

Heathrow Airport Limited
Heathrow Airport Limited (“LHR”) was served with a monetary penalty notice in the sum of £120,000 [pdf] after the Commissioner found that it had breached the seventh data protection principle in schedule 1 to the DPA98. LHR had lost an unencrypted USB memory stick which had been found by a member of the public in West London. The member of the public who found the USB memory stick took it to a public library where they accessed it. Approximately 1% of the files on the memory stick contained personal data, including sensitive personal data. The Commissioner found that the use of removable media was widespread within LHR, but that there was little in the way of measures in places to ensure oversight. Furthermore, there were no technical barriers in place to limit or restrict the downloading of information from LHR’s systems onto removable media.

Boost Finance Limited
Boost Finance Limited (“Boost”) was served with a monetary penalty notice in the sum of £90,000 [pdf] after the Commissioner found that it was responsible for a large number of unsolicited E-mails in respect of pre-paid funeral plans. The Commissioner found that Boost (trading as findmeafuneralplan.com) had instigated, via affiliates that it had appointed, in excess of 4 million unsolicited marketing E-mails contrary to Regulation 22 of PECR. The E-mails were sent to individuals who had subscribed to a number of Boost’s affiliates. The Commissioner concluded [para 16] that Boost had “relied upon inadequate, generic, vague, misleading, tiered and incomplete personal data collection methods and privacy statements as a way of obtaining consent to send direct marketing E-mails.”

Aggregate IQ Data Services Limited
This is not a new Enforcement Notice, but rather it is a notice of variation of the first ever enforcement notice served under the DPA18 [pdf]. Aggregate IQ Data Services Limited (“AIQ”) was served with an enforcement notice by the Commissioner in respect of her investigation into data analytics in politics (which arose out of the allegations surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica). AIQ had appealed the Notice to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) and has since discontinued that appeal. The revised notice is in much tighter terms than the original notice served by the Commissioner. The revised notice requires AIQ to “[e]rase any personal data of individuals in the UK, determined by reference to the domain name of the email address processed by AIQ, retained by AIQ on its servers as notified to the Information Commissioner…” AIQ is required to do this within 30 days of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia notifying it that either the OIPC no longer requires it for an investigation, or that the OIPC informs AIQ that it is happy for AIQ to comply with the notice (whichever occurs the soonest).

Facebook Ireland Ltd
Facebook Ireland Ltd is the company who UK users (and indeed other EU users) of the Facebook social media platform have a relationship with. The Commissioner served Facebook Ireland with a monetary penalty notice in the sum of £500,000 for breaches of the first and seventh data protection principles [pdf]. The Commissioner considered that Facebook UK Limited, a UK establishment, had carried out certain activities on behalf of Facebook Ireland and Facebook Inc. As the breaches occurred while the DPA98 was still in force, £500,000 represents the maximum penalty that the Commissioner could issue. It is understood that Facebook Ireland has appealed the monetary penalty to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights).

ACT Response Limited
The Information Commissioner served ACT Response Limited (“ACT”) with a monetary penalty notice in the amount of £140,000 [pdf] after she found that ACT had instigated in excess of £490,000 telephone calls for the purposes of direct marketing in contravention of Regulation 21 of PECR. The company operated its own internal suppression list, but did not screen its lists against the Telephone Preference Service list. ACT provided a copy of a training manual to the commissioner during her investigation, which contained a script which directed those making the calls to ask whether a person was listed on the TPS and to apologise if they were. ACT tried to blame the contravention on one of its sister companies as the company that made the calls, but the sister company made the calls on behalf of ACT and the lines used to make the calls were registered to ACT.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.

Data Protection and Privacy Enforcement: September 2018

October is nearly over and I am only now getting round to looking at the Information Commissioner’s data protection and privacy enforcement from September. As with most months, many of the key points drawn from September’s enforcement action will be familiar to regular reads of this feature. However, they are evidently worth repeating.

Key Points

  • Once again, it is clear that organisations engaged in direct marketing where they have obtained contact details from third parties are not carrying out sufficient due diligence checks on the data that is received by them. It is not going to be enough to simply rely upon an assurance from the supplier that all the contact details comply with the law; the recipient organisation needs to check this for themselves. Often the agreement that is obtained from the ultimate intended recipient of the marketing communications is not specific enough to enable the intended marketing to be undertaken lawfully. For example, these agreements often simply refer to “carefully selected partners” (or words of similar effect) – this is not specific enough and should not be relied upon.
  • The right of subject access is a fundamental right afforded to data subjects and data controllers should therefore ensure that they have in place sufficient processes to ensure that they can comply with subject access requests within the required time (one month under the GDPR). Data controller should also ensure that they have in place adequate resources (including resilience) to meet the tight deadlines.
  • It is important that organisations have in place processes to stop bulk extraction of personal data (where bulk extraction would not be legitimately required) or to ensure that unauthorised bulk extraction is either not able to take place or be spotted quickly when it has taken place. It is important that systems which contain personal data are monitored to identify unusual or suspicious activity.

Data Protection and Privacy Enforcement from September 2018

Everything DM Limited
Everything DM Limited was served with an Enforcement Notice [pdf] together with a monetary penalty in the amount of £60,000 [pdf]. The Commissioner found that Everything DM Limited had been responsible for the sending of 1.42 million E-mails without having in place appropriate consent, contrary to the requirements of Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”). The commissioner’s investigation revealed that EDML relied on the consent of third parties but didn’t take reasonable steps to make sure the data complied with the requirements of PECR.

London Borough of Lewisham
The Information Commissioner’s Office issued an Enforcement Notice to the London Borough of Lewisham council in respect of its outstanding subject access requests [pdf]. As at 29 March 2018, the council had a backlog of 113 unanswered subject access requests; including one request that was made to the council as far back as 2013. The Council had in place a recovery plan to eliminate the backlog by 31 July 2018, but it failed to meet that deadline. The notice records that there were still 19 requests that pre-dated the 25th May 2018. The Commissioner’s office considered that the Council had breached principles 6 and 7 and that the breach was one that was likely to cause distress to data subjects. The Council was required by the Notice to comply with the subject access requests by 15 October 2018.

Equifax Limited
Equifax Limited, a credit reference agency, was served with a monetary penalty in the sum of £500,000 after the Commissioner found that Equifax Limited had breached 5 of the 8 data protection principles in the Data Protection act 1998 [pdf].

Bupa Insurance Services Limited
Bupa Insurance Services Limited was served with a monetary penalty notice in the sum of £175,000 after it was discovered that personal data of Bupa Global’s customers was being offered for sale on the “dark web” [pdf]. The matter was investigated and it was discovered that a member of Bupa’s Partnership advisory Team had made unauthorised use of personal data accessed from a system they had access to. The Commissioner considered that Bupa failed to have in placed adequate technical organisational measures as required by the seventh data protection principle. Bupa was unaware of a defect in the system and was unable to detect unusual activity, such as bulk extractions of data; nor did Bupa routinely monitor the activity log of the relevant system.

Prosecutions
A former nurse at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust was prosecuted by the Information Commissioner’s Office after she unlawfully accessed patient’s records. The nurse accessed patients’ medical records outside of her role; in particular she inappropriately accessed the records of 5 patients, 17 times. The nurse admitted offences under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998 and was fined £400. She was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £364.08 and a victim surcharge of £40.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.

Nefarious Endeavours and Vicarious Liability for Data Breaches: Round 2 (The Court of Appeal)

The England and Wales Court of Appeal has delivered its judgment in the appeal by Morrisons against a finding by the High Court that it was vicariously liable for breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 by one of its former employees. I will not set out the facts in much detail and instead direct readers to the blog post that I wrote following the decision of the High Court. It should be noted that all references to the DPA in this blog post are to the Data Protection Act 1998 and not the Data Protection Act 2018. For the sake of this post all that is really necessary to say is that Mr. Skelton, a former employee of Morrisons, was rather disgruntled when his employment with Morrisons came to an end. Before leaving Morrisons’ employment he copied records of over 5,000 employees onto a personal memory stick with the intention of disclosing that personal data on the internet.

Mr Justice Langstaff, who heard the case in the High Court, on his own motion granted Morrisons leave to appeal the vicarious liability issue to the Court of Appeal. Morrisons took the opportunity granted to them by Mr Justice Langstaff and appealed to the Court of Appeal. When the case came before the Court of Appeal there were three grounds of appeal: (1) the Judge ought to have concluded that, in its proper interpretation and having regard to the nature and purposes of the statutory scheme, the DPA excludes the application of vicarious liability; (2) the Judge ought to have concluded that, on its proper interpretation, the DPA excludes the application of causes of action for misuse of private information and breach of confidence and/or the imposition of vicarious liability for breaches of the same; and (3) the Judge was wrong to conclude (a) that the wrongful acts of Mr Skelton occurred during the course of his employment by Morrisons, and, accordingly, (b) that Morrisons was vicariously liable for those wrongful acts.

The Court of Appeal took the first and second grounds of appeal together; they essentially constructed an argument that the DPA provides a comprehensive statutory code which prevents a finding of vicarious liability. The Appellants’ argued that the DPA indicated a position contrary to the common law position that vicarious liability holds good for a wrong comprising a breach of a statutory duty. The Court of Appeal disagreed concluding at paragraph 60 of its judgment that “the concession that the causes of action for misuse of private information and breach of confidentiality are not excluded by the DPA in respect of the wrongful processing of data within the ambit of the DPA, and the complete absence of any provision of the DPA addressing the situation of an employer where an employee data controller breaches the requirements of the DPA, lead inevitably to the conclusion that the Judge was correct to hold that the common law remedy of vicarious liability of the employer in such circumstances (if the common law requirements are otherwise satisfied) was not expressly or impliedly excluded by the DPA.”

In relation to the Appellants’ third ground of appeal, this was also refused by the Court of Appeal. The Court noted, at paragraph 66, that in this “case the claimants’ cause of action in tort against Mr Skelton were already established when he improperly downloaded their data onto his USB stick. At that stage, had any of them been aware of what happened, they could as a matter of law have claimed at least nominal damages and sought and injunction to prevent dissemination of the data.” The Appellants’ Senior Counsel, Anya Proops QC, argued that (relying upon authority from the Supreme Court in a case from the jurisdiction of England and Wales) what Mr. Skelton had done at work in November (that being the downloading of the data) was “past history by the time he distributed the data from his home in January” [para 67].

In essence the Appellants’ Senior Counsel was arguing that the law on vicarious liability only permitted the employer to be liable for the conduct of the employee if the employee was on the job at the time. In essence, Senior Counsel was arguing that the chain of liability ended at the same time as Mr. Skelton’s employment ended. However, that argument did not fair much better in the Court of Appeal than it did in the High Court.

This point which troubled Mr Justice Langatsff in the High Court the most features in ground of appeal three and that is this: the motivation of Mr. Skelton was to cause harm to Morrisons; by finding Morrisons vicariously liable renders the court an accessory in furthering Mr. Skelton’s criminal aims. It appears that it was this point that triggered Mr Justice Langstaff to grant permission to appeal to Morrisons. None of the cases to which the court was referred did the situation arise where the conduct for which the employer was to be held vicariously liable arose out of the employees settled determination to cause harm to the employer. However, it had been held in previous decisions that the motive of the employee was irrelevant in reaching a determination as to whether the employer was vicariously liable. The Appellants’ Senior Counsel argued that “there is an exception to the irrelevance of motive where the motive us, by causing harm to a third party, top cause financial or reputational damage to the employer.” [para 76] The Court of Appeal was, however, unpersuaded. [para 76]

The Appellants’ senior counsel also sought to argue that a finding of vicarious liability in this case would place an enormous burden upon Morrisons and on innocent employers in cases that could come in the future. However, the Court of Appeal was not persuaded by this argument. At paragraph 77 of its judgment the court states “[a]s it happens Mr Skelton’s Nefarious activities involved the data of a very large number of employees although, so far as we are aware, none of them has suffered financial loss. But suppose he had misused the data so as to steal a large sum of money from one employee’s bank account. If Morrisons’ arguments are correct, then (save for any possible claim against the bank) such a victim would have no remedy except against Mr Skelton personally.” The court compared that situation to the one which arose in what was described by the court as “the foundation of the modern law of vicarious liability” [para 76] In that case a solicitor’s clerk dishonestly procured a conveyance in his own favour of the client’s property.

The solution proposed by the Court of Appeal to any burden that might be placed upon employers arising out of data theft incidents was insurance. [para 78].

The appeal was therefore dismissed by the Court of Appeal. It remains to be seen whether this will be the end of this aspect of the proceedings, or whether Morrisons will seek to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court. The level of damages to be awarded is yet to be determined as that matter was split from the issue of liability when the case was before the High Court. Whether we will ever get to see any judicial writings on quantum will depend upon whether that can be agreed between the Claimants and Morrisons.

Application in Scotland
This is, of course, a judgment of the England and Wales Court of Appeal; Scotland has a separate and distinct legal system meaning that English court judgments do not bind Scottish courts, but rather are of persuasive authority – especially when they deal with matters of law which are common across the whole of the UK (such as data protection law).

It should be noted that in Scotland there is no authority on whether breach of confidence is a delict (the Scottish equivalent of tort) or a unique obligation; nor, has there been any authority considering relationship between breach of confidence and “misuse of private information” in relation to Scots law. It has been argued by academics that the Scottish courts would likely follow the English position; however, this is yet to be tested in the law of Scotland (and, for what it’s worth, I agree with the position that the Scottish courts would likely follow the English courts on this matter). Therefore data controllers with a presence in Scotland should be careful when considering the Court of Appeal’s comments in relation to the tort of misuse of private information.

Data Controllers in Scotland should not ignore this judgment for various reasons. Firstly, it may be that although the controller is based in Scotland they may be processing the personal data of data subjects based in England who may, dependent upon the circumstances, be able to bring proceedings in an English court as opposed to a Scottish court. Secondly, it is only a matter of time before claims of this nature come before the English courts. Litigation of this nature has been rare in Scotland for a variety of reasons, but with the advent of Group Proceedings through the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 it might well become much easier for large groups of data subjects to bring claims against data controllers.

Alistair Sloan

If you would like advice or assistance in connection with Data Protection/Privacy, or if you would like advice and assistance with any other Information Law matter we would be pleased to hear from you. You can contact Alistair Sloan on 0345 450 0123.  Alternatively, you can send him an E-mail.

Non-payment of Data Protection Fees: The ICO announces first steps in enforcement

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 it was an offence to process personal data without notifying with the Information Commissioner (and paying the required notification fee) unless you were exempt from having to notify. The position changed in May when the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 entered into force. The requirement to notify, which had its origin in the 1995 Data Protection Directive, was done away with. This left the UK with a particular problem: the Information Commissioner’s work in relation to the enforcement of data protection was funded entirely by the notification fees paid by data controllers. The solution was to introduce a system of fees which data controllers are required to pay to the Information Commissioner unless they are exempt from having to do so.

The law was also changed so that non payment of the data protection fee by a controller required to pay it is no longer a criminal offence. There are duplicate provisions in law which allow the Information Commissioner to charge these fees. The duplicate provisions are section 137 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and section 108 of the Digital Economy Act 2017. The fees payable are current specified within The Data Protection (Charges and Information) Regulations 2018, which were made exercising the powers under section 108 of the Digital Economy Act (the Regulations being made prior to the enactment of the Data Protection Act 2018 in May). There are, however, no provisions within the Digital Economy Act 2017 in respect of penalties for non-payment of these fees; the only provision which provides for non-payment of these fees is section 158 of the Data Protection Act 2018, which applies to fees made under section 137 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

In terms of section 158 of the Data Protection Act 2018, the maximum penalty for non-payment of the fee is 150% of the highest charge payable in accordance with the fees regulations, disregarding any discount available under the fees regulations.

It seems that a number of data controllers, who the Commissioner believes should be paying a fee, have not paid their fee. Earlier this week it was announced that the Information Commissioner’s Office had started to take enforcement action against 34 such organisations. The enforcement regime in section 158 of the Data protection Act 2018 applies to regulations made under section 108 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 by virtue of a provision within Schedule 20 to the Data Protection Act 2018 which provides that Regulations made under section 108 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 are to have effect as if they were Regulations made under section 137 of the Data Protection Act 2018 after the coming into force of section 137 of the Data Protection act 2018 (which happened on 25 May 2018).

The Notices of Intent, according to the ICO press release, have been issued to a range of controllers across the public and private sectors and that there are others in the process of being about to be issued. They act as a final warning by the ICO they if organisations don’t pay then they will be the recipient of a fixed penalty. It seems that the ICO is taking a relatively strong stance against non-payers from the outset and data controllers should therefore ensure that they pay their registration fees (where applicable) as and when their notification under the Data Protection Act 1998 comes to an end; or immediately where they were did not notify under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Alistair Sloan

If you would like advice on a data protection or privacy matter than contact Alistair on 0141 229 0880 or you can E-mail him directly. You can also follow our twitter account dedicated to the field of Information law

Data Protection/Privacy Enforcement: August 2018

August was another quiet month in terms of the data protection and privacy enforcement action published by the Information Commissioner’s Office. There were just two Monetary Penalty Notices published by the ICO last month. There are still a few key points to draw from last month’s published enforcement action – some of which are featured fairly regularly on these monthly blogposts, but are worthy of repitition.

Key Points

  • When carrying out direct marketing by telephone it is important that you check the intended list against the list held by the Telephone Preference Service before undertaking the campaign. If any number you intend on calling appears on that list you must satisfy yourself that you have sufficient evidence to support that you can still call that number, despite it being on the TPS.
  • If you’re getting your telephone lists from a third party then you must still do your own due diligence. Ensure that you have received sufficient evidence from the seller that the persons on the list have, in fact, indicated that they don’t mind being marketed to.
  • When drafting a privacy notice which sets out that you may share personal data with third parties it is important to be as accurate and precise as possible. It is not enough to include something along the lines of that you will share personal data with “carefully selected partners” and if you have a detailed list of organisations (or categories of organisations) that you may share personal data with, it is important that you do not share personal data with third parties who do not fall within that list.

Enforcement action published by the ICO in August 2018

AMS Marketing Limited
AMS Marketing Limited was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £100,000 [pdf] after if breached Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. AMS Marketing had made in excess of 75,000 calls to numbers which were listed with the Telephone Preference Service and were unable to demonstrate to the Commissioner that they had been notified by the subscriber that they did not object, for the time being, to receiving calls for the purpose of direct marketing.

Lifecycle Marketing (Mother and Baby) Ltd
Life Style Marketing (Mother and Baby) Ltd (also known as ‘Emma’s Diary’) was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £140,000 after it failed to comply with the first data protection principle in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998 (“DPA1998”). The company sold the personal data of more than 1 million individuals to the Labour Party for use in its campaign during the General election that took place in 2017 without telling those individuals that this is something that it might do with their personal data. The company, the Commissioner found, had no lawful basis within Schedule 2 of the DPA1998 for processing the personal data of those individuals.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.

 

 

Data Protection/Privacy Enforcement: July 2018

The summer period can often be a bit quitter than normal and that was certainly true in terms of the volume of data protection and privacy enforcement action published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (but not so much for me, which is why this month’s look at the previous month’s enforcement action is coming later in the month than usual). There were just three pieces of enforcement action published on the ICO’s website during the month of July: two monetary penalty notices and information relating to the prosecution of one business. The key points for this month’s blog post will not be unfamiliar to people who regularly read this feature.

Key Points

  • Remember that if you wish to directly market individuals by electronic mail (which includes SMS) then, unless you are able to avail yourself of the very limited “soft opt-in”, then you must have received (and be able to demonstrate that you have received) consent from the individual. The GDPR has not changed the rules around direct marketing by electronic means (or, indeed, by telephone). These forms of direct marketing continue to be governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (“PECR”).
  • It is the responsibility of the person instigating direct marketing by electronic means to satisfy themselves that the campaign they are about to embark upon is lawful. Companies engaged in direct marketing campaigns where the data has come from a third party should undertake adequate checks to ensure that they can lawfully market to the intended recipients.
  • When sending out bulk E-mails it is important to ensure that proper procedures are in place and followed. Not placing the E-mail addresses into the “BCC” field is a fairly common error, which can be costly to an organisation (both in terms of the financial cost as well as reputation). If sending out bulk E-mails is going to be necessary, it may be worthwhile looking at investing in products and services which help to ensure that the personal data of the recipients is kept safe and secure.
  • It is important to ensure that data controllers comply with the terms of Information Notices served on them by the Commissioner. While it is no longer a criminal offence to fail to comply with an Information Notices (if it is served under the Data Protection Act 2018); the Commissioner can issue persons upon whom they are served with administrative fines should they fail to comply.
  • Notification is no longer required under the General Data Protection Regulation, but domestic law still requires data controllers (unless they fall into an exempt category) to pay a fee. The Commissioner has the power to issue a fixed penalty to controllers who have not paid a fee when they should have.

Enforcement action published during the month of July 2018

STS Commercial Limited
STS Commercial Limited, a welsh-based company, was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the sum of £60,000 [pdf] after it sent direct marketing by text message to over 270,000 people in contravention of Regulation 22 of PECR. The company was reliant upon consent which had been provided to a third party and carried out no due diligence of its own to ascertain that the consent met the requirements of PECR.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex abuse was established by the Government to conduct an independent investigation into historic child sexual abuse. The Inquiry was served with a monetary penalty notice by the Information Commissioner in the amount of £200,000 [pdf] after it revealed the identities of abuse victims in a mass E-mail. The incident occurred after a member of the Inquiries staff entered the E-mail addresses of victims and survivors into the “to” field, instead of the “bcc” filed on more than one occasion. Each recipient of the E-mail therefore see the E-mail addresses of every other recipient, some of which contained the full name of the recipient (while others contained a partial name).

Prosecutions
Noble Design and Technology (based in Telford, Shropshire), was prosecuted by the Information Commissioner after it failed to comply with the terms of an Information Notice. The company had also failed to notify with the Information Commissioner, despite being required to do so. The company was convicted in its absence at Telford Magistrates’ Court and was fined £2,000 for failing to comply with an Information Notice. The company was also fined £2,500 for processing personal data without having notified (when it should have) and was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £364.08 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.

Facebook, Fines and Enforcement: ICO investigation into political campaigning

In March the Commissioner executed a warrant under the Data Protection Act 1998, to much fanfare and press coverage, on Cambridge Analytica – the data analytics firm who had been involved in the election campaign by US President Donald Trump and who had allegedly undertaken work for Leave.EU in the 2016 referendum on whether the UL should remain a member of the European Union or not. At the same time the Information commissioner announced a much wider investigation into compliance with data protection and privacy laws in political campaigning.

The Information Commissioner has today published a report giving an update on that wider investigation [pdf]. There has been much fanfare around this report and in particular a suggestion that Facebook has been served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £500,000. This would be big news; it may not be a large sum of money to Facebook, but £500,000 is the maximum that the Information commissioner can serve a Monetary Penalty Notice for under the Data Protection Act 1998.

However, it has become clear that Facebook has not been served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £500,000. The first thing to note here is that the Data Protection Act 1998 still applies; the alleged breaches of data protection law that the Commissioner is concerned with pre-dated 25 May 2018 and therefore the powers under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) do not apply. What has happened is that the Information Commissioner has served a “Notice of Intent” on Facebook indicating that the Commissioner intends on serving Facebook with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £500,000. This is the first stage in the process of serving a Monetary Penalty Notice, but it is by no means guaranteed that (a) a Monetary Penalty Notice will be issued; and (b) that it will be in the amount of £500,000.

Facebook will have the opportunity to make written representations to the Information Commissioner on various matters, including whether the statutory tests for serving a Monetary Penalty Notice have been met and on the amount of the Penalty. The Commissioner must take account of these representations when making a final decision on serving the Monetary Penalty Notice: not to do so would likely result in an appeal against the Notice to the First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights), which could ultimately result in the Monetary Penalty Notice being reduced in amount or quashed altogether. If Facebook brings forward evidence to the Commissioner that means she can no longer make certain findings in fact that will have an impact on both her ability to serve the Monetary Penalty Notice and the amount of that notice.

It could be many more weeks, if not months before we know whether a Monetary Penalty Notice is in fact being served on Facebook and how much it is for. The Commissioner must serve the Monetary Penalty Notice on Facebook within six month of serving the Notice of Intent.

There are some other aspects of the Commissioner’s report that are worthy of some brief consideration. The Commissioner has announced that she is intending on prosecuting SCL Elections Limited. The information given by the Commissioner suggests that this prosecution is to be limited to one very specific issue: their failure to comply with an Enforcement Notice previously served on the company. The Enforcement Notice was served on the company after they failed to comply with a subject access request received by them from a US academic. The company was in administration when the Enforcement Notice was served and remains in administration today. The Information Commissioner is able to prosecute offences under the legislation it is responsible for enforcing in its own right; except in Scotland where it requires to report the matter to the Procurator Fiscal in the same way as every other law enforcement agency is required. How successful that prosecution will be and what benefit it will bring remains to be seen given that the company is in administration. Even if the company is successfully

We have also seen what appears to be the first piece of enforcement action taken under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General data Protection Regulation.  The Commissioner has served an Enforcement Notice on the Canadian company, Aggregate IQ [pdf]. This amounts to what could be termed as a “stop processing notice” and it requires Aggregate IQ to, within 30 days, “cease processing any personal data of UK or EU citizens obtained from UK political organisations or otherwise for the purposes of data analytics, political campaigning, or any other advertising.”

Failure to comply with an Enforcement Notice under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR is not (unlike under the Data Protection Act 1998) a criminal offence; however, a failure to comply can result in an administrative fine of up to €20 million or 4% of global turnover (whichever is the greater). How successful the ICO will be at enforcing this enforcement notice, given that the company is located in Canada and appears to have no established base in the UK, or any other EU member state, remains to be seen.

Other investigations are still ongoing. The Commissioner appears to be continuing to investigate whether there was any unlawful data sharing between Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance. Investigations are also being undertaken into the main ‘Remain’ campaign in the EU referendum and also into all of the UK’s main political parties. It remains to be seen what will happen there.

The Commissioner’s report also informs us that the appeal by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) against an Information Notice previously served upon them has been dismissed. The First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has not yet published a decision in that case on its website, but should it do so I shall endeavour to blog on that decision (especially given that there has never to my knowledge been an appeal to the Tribunal against an Information Notice). Failure to comply with an Information Notice is a criminal offence, and a company was recently fined £2,000 at Telford Magistrates’ Court for that very offence.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice or assistance on a matter relating to data protection or privacy law then you can contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or send him an E-mail. You can also follow our twitter account dedicated to information law matters.

Data Protection/Privacy Enforcement: June 2018

June was exceptionally good weather wise with lots of bright and sunny weather, but the outlook for some data controllers was not so bright or sunny as the Information Commissioner took action againt them for data protection and privacy breaches. Many of the key points arising out of last month’s enforcement action make a regular appearance on this blog. In relation to enforcement of (the now repealed) Data Protection Act 1998, the focus remains heavily on breaches of the seventh data protection principle relating to technical and organisational measures.

Key Points

  • Train, train, train – training is a key aspect of a data controllers ability to reduce the risk of suffering a data breach. Ensuring that all staff receive appropriate training on data protection relevant to their job role upon induction; and regular refresher training thereafter, is a core aspect of ensuring that the organisation has in place adequate organisational measures. It’s also important to ensure that people actually undertake induction and referesher training on offer. It is all very well having lots of well designed and worked-out policies, procedures and training material, but if nobody is being trained on the policies and procedures, then the controller might as well have not made the investment in the first place.
  • Sending bulk E-mails is a high risk activity and extreme care should be taken to ensure that personal data is not inappropriately revealed. The manual entry of E-mail addresses can pose a significant risk; even if there is a well documented procedure to use the Bcc field (and everyone has undergone their induction and refresher training setting out this procedure).
  • The right of subject access is a core right of data subjects and it is therefore important that data controllers have in place adequate procedures to identify, record, track and respond to subject access requests. A failure to comply with a subject access request can result in a data subject making a complaint to the Information Commissioner (who may take enforcement action) or applying to the court for an order forcing the data controller to comply.
  • When conducting direct marketing campaigns by electronic means, make sure that you really do have in place the appropriate consents. Further, if you’re sending something as a service message make sure it really is a service message and not a marketing message dressed up as a service message.
  • If you are making live telephone calls for the purposes of direct marketing you must ensure that you do not make calls to telephone numbers listed with the Telephone Preference Service unless you have clear consent to do so.

Enforcement action published in June 2018

 The British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £100,000 [pdf] after suffering a ransomware attack. This had been possible after a brute-force attack had exploited a vulnerability of a weak password. This gave them access to the Remote Desk Server (which allowed home working). The attackers were therefore able to access personal data. The Commissioner considered that the British and Foreign Bible Society did not have in place adequate organisational and technical measures and as such was in breach of the seventh data protection principle.

Chief Constable of Humberside Police
The Chief Constable of Humberside Police gave an undertaking to the Information Commissioner after loosing interview disks and written notes concerning n allegation of rape [pdf]. Humberside Police had conducted the interviews on behalf of another force. During the course of the Commissioner’s investigation into the data breach, it transpired that training compliance within the force on data protection was only 16.8%. Of the three officers involved in the initial incident, two had received training some years ago and the third had received no training at all.

Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Police
The Chief Constable of Gloucestershire Police was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £80,000 [pdf] after sending a bulk E-mail which identified victims of historic child abuse. In December 2016 an officer sent an update about investigations into allegations of child abuse relating to multiple victims. The officer did not make use of the ‘Bcc’ function and instead entered all of the E-mail addresses into the “to” field thus revealing the E-mail addresses of every recipient to every other.

Ainsworth Lord Estates Limited
Ainsworth Lord Estates Limited was served with an Enforcement Notice after it failed to respond to a Subject Access Request made by a data subject [pdf]. The data subject made a subject access request to the controller and got an out of office response; when they received no response they attempted to engage with the controller, but got no response. When the Commissioner became involved her office attempted to contact the controller, but had no success in receiving a response.

British Telecommunications Plc
British Telecommunications Plc (BT) was served with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £77,000 [pdf] for breaching the provisions of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) regulations 2003. A complaint was made to the ICO by an individual who had opted out of receiving marketing communications from BT when they received a message from BT promoting its ‘My Donate’ platform. The Commissioner opened an investigation as it appeared the message had been sent to  the whole of BT’s marketing database. BT advised the Commissioner that it considered that the message re ‘My Donate’ was a service message, rather than a marketing message. Two other marketing campaigns took place, which BT accepted were marketing campaigns and argued that they had complied with the requirements of PECR by only sending it to those who had opted-in; BT purported to also reply upon the ‘soft opt-in’. The Commissioner found that in relation to all three campaigns, BT had failed to comply with Regulation 22 of PECR.

Our Vault Limited
Our Vault Limited was served with an Enforcement Notice [pdf] and also with a Monetary Penalty Notice in the amount of £70,000 [pdf] after it failed to comply with the provisions of PECR. The company made live telephone calls for the purposes of marketing the products of a third party company (under the guise of conducting lifestyle research); including to numbers that were listed with the Telephone Preference Service where they did not have the consent of the subscriber to do so, contrary to Regulation 21 of PECR.

Horizon Windows Limited
Horizon Windows Limited was served with an Enforcement Notice after it failed to comply with the provisions of Regulation 21 of PECR [pdf]. In this case complaints continued to be received by the Commissioner during the course of her offices’ investigation.

Alistair Sloan

If you require advice and assistance in connection with any of the data protection/privacy issues above, or any other Information Law matter, please do contact Alistair Sloan on 0141 229 0880 or by sending him an E-mail directly.  You can also follow our dedicated information law twitter account.