I thought that members of the list would be interested in seeing the
response I have finally extracted from the ICO on my suggestion that there
should be a separate helpdesk set-up for DP professionals......cue cynical
comments from usual suspects!
-----Original Message-----
From: Make DP. Simpler [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 26 January 2004 17:53
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: ICO DP Helpline
Dear Ms Carter
Thank you for your email of 15 January to our Make DP Simpler Mailbox,
and your subsequent email to our Website feedback box.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the failure to acknowledge your
email. It was received, and we have forwarded it to the section that is
engaged in strengthening the helpdesk. If they have since responded to
you please ignore this message.
Our work to improve our helpline, and indeed the Make DP Simpler project
in general, are both greatly assisted by feedback from data protection
specialists. Thank you for taking the time to provide your comments.
How best to structure the helpdesk to deal with both the general
public's queries and more knowledgeable Data Protection Professionals is
an area that we are paying particularly close attention to. I am not
aware of whether our plans have been finalised, but we will be trying to
target our contact with Data Protection Professionals to more
specialised staff. I believe that in some areas "job-shadow" activities
are under way to increase the understanding between our compliance
officers and front-line staff.
Thank you again for giving us feedback. Please contact us if we can
provide any assistance in future, or if there is any other feedback that
you wish to provide.
Yours, with thanks
Jonathan Kay
Policy Officer
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 15 January 2004 12:20
To: Make DP. Simpler
Subject: ICO DP Helpline
I was interested to hear Richard Thomas' interview on Radio 4 yesterday,
and
have since also read the press release that was published on the
website,
and was greatly heartened to hear that first on the list of measures was
"strengthening the Data Protection Helpline". I have a couple of
suggestions for how you might go about doing that.
* Have a separate helpdesk for DP experts and practitioners from
the
helpdesk for the general public.
* Within that helpdesk, consider allocating particular types of
queries to people expert in that particular area. For example, have one
person deal with marketing issues, while another deals with
health/medical
sector, and another dealing with the financial sector. Even if that
person
was not already expert in that particular area, they soon would be. And
I
believe your staff would also then benefit from engaging with those of
us
who are on the DP "front line" and know, in practice rather than in
theory,
what works and what doesn't, and can feedback practical advice.
Building a
relationship with DP practitioners would be mutually beneficial.
I am an ISEB certified DP Officer and have found it extremely
frustrating to
e-mail the helpIine with a very specific query, only to be told three
weeks
later in their response that "I should apply the relevant DP principles,
which are......." I don't expect every member of your helpline to be
able
to give a considered response to any given complex issue, but I do
expect to
be able to communicate directly with someone who can.
My comments are intended to be constructive criticism, and I hope you
will
consider them in that spirit. I look forward to hearing your views.
Regards,
Antoinette Carter
Data Protection Officer
British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN
Tel: +44 (0) 207 389 4970
[log in to unmask]
Creating opportunity for people worldwide
www.britishcouncil.org
<<Carter, Antoinette (CMM).vcf>>
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