(Redirected from Office of the Information Commissioner)
The 'Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)' in the
United Kingdom, is a
non-departmental public body which reports directly to
Parliament and is sponsored by the
Ministry of Justice. The Commissioner's role is to be the independent champion of public openness and personal privacy, particularly in respect of elements of the
Data Protection Act 1998 and the
Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Since the appointment of Richard Thomas as Commissioner, the ICO has been particularly noted for raising serious concerns over the Government's proposed
British national identity card and database, as well as other similar databases such as the
Citizen Information Project,
Universal Child Database, and the
NHS National Programme for IT, stating that the country is in danger of sleepwalking into a
surveillance society
[1], drawing attention to the misuse of such information by the former states of the
Eastern bloc and
Franco's
Spain.
Data Protection Act
The
United Kingdom as a member of the
European Union is subject to a strict regime of
Data Protection. The
Data Protection Act 1984 created the post of Data Protection Registrar with whom people processing personal data had to register. Under the provisions of
EC Directive 95/46 (introduced in the UK as the
Data Protection Act 1998, rather than as an
SI under the
European Communities Act 1972 or the
Single European Act 1986) the name of the post was changed to the ''Data Protection Commissioner''.
You can search the
register of data controllers at the
website of the ICO, which also gives links to his counterparts around
Europe.
Freedom of Information Act
Under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 the Commissioner's role was expanded to include
freedom of information and the job title was changed to Information Commissioner ('IC').
List of Information Commissioners
★ Richard Thomas (appointed December 2,
2002)
★ Elizabeth France (appointed January 30,
2001)
Similar roles in Europe
The role of the ICO is mirrored throughout the countries of the
European Union and
EEA who have equivalent officials created under their versions of Directive 95/46.
See also
★
Data privacy
★
Departments of the United Kingdom Government
★
UK topics
★
Privacy International
★
External links
★ http://www.ico.gov.uk/
★
Privacy & Data Protection - for journals, training and conferences
★
Privacy International
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