The UK’s privacy regulator has asked for increased funding from government as it seeks to deal with a mounting workload sparked by a series of controversies around data security and privacy.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has been swamped with more complaints than ever before, according to its annual report released today, with its in-tray unlikely to clear any time soon.
That is partly due to a recent EU ruling on people's right to have entries removed from Google's search results as part of their "right to be forgotten", which has since led to a heated debate about censorship of information that is in the public interest.
The ICO is also already dealing with a number of complaints around the data practices of social networks, including investigating a psychology study conducted by Facebook, in which researchers attempted to manipulate users’ moods.
Other factors cited by the ICO in its appeal for more funding include NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leaks about GCHQ's access to British citizens' data, and the government-led Care.data project, with its plans to give GPs and hospitals access to shared databases of people's healthcare records also running into opposition.
“Facebook, Care.data, Google: it is clear that organisations’ use of data is getting ever more complicated. People need to know someone is watching over their information,” said the information commissioner, Christopher Graham.
“A strong regulator is needed if a data breach affects millions of people … But to do our job properly, to represent people properly, we need stronger powers, more sustainable funding and a clearer guarantee of independence.”
In his foreword to the report, Graham said the ICO should be given a “guarantee of independence that comes from a more formal relationship with parliament than is the case at present”.
The privacy watchdog resolved 15,492 data protection complaints between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014: a rise of 8.5%.
It also handles complaints on Freedom of Information requests too, deciding on 5,296 over the last year, representing a 12% year-on-year rise. The ICO also dealt with 161,720 reports from those concerned about spam texts and nuisance calls.
The ICO has several reasons to fear cuts to its budget rather than benefit from extra funding. Changes to European data protection law would cut off the money it receives from registration – all companies handling data in the UK have to pay a fee to the ICO.
The body, which employs almost 383 people in five locations, has already seen continuing declines in funding for its FOI work over the past five years. Its technology-focused taskforce consists of just three members of staff.
While the ICO can fine companies up to £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act, issuing £1.97m in penalties between April 2013 and March 2014, that money goes back to HM Treasury.
The data protection barrister and solicitor Stewart Room said this was an “obvious place to start” for providing the ICO with more resources.
“Clearly, the data protection issue needs to be dealt with, because ICO cannot be unfunded, but I doubt that there will be a significant increase in the FOI budget,” Room said.
“It is easy to have sympathy with the ICO’s position, but I expect they will be told to rely more on the ‘tried-and-tested efficiency savings’ and longer working hours.”
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