The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has reported a substantial increase in the number of complaints relating to alleged data protection breaches since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came in to force earlier this year.
It is believed that between 25 May and 3 July 2018, the ICO received 6,281 complaints, which represents a 160% increase on the same period in 2017.
GDPR Regulations
Under GDPR, organisations can be fined 20million Euros or 4% of their global turnover, which is significantly more than the maximum fine that was possible under the old rules. There was a huge amount of media attention and government in the lead up to 25 May when the GDPR came in to force, which has no doubt increased individuals’ awareness of both their individual rights and the enhanced obligations on businesses to deal with data transparently and lawfully.
Although we are yet to see what level of fines will be applied to different types of breaches, it is thought those businesses which fail to self-report incidents to the ICO are likely to come in for the highest fines. Certainly this data seems to suggest that the new law has been successful in increasing transparency and empowering data subjects to report breaches.
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