I have learnt something today, and I wanted to share it. It has
resulted in my sweeping away a tranche of imperfect knowledge. Or, I
was just plain wrong.
First my original and imperfect knowledge:
I "knew" and I seem to have been very wrong, that a point of presence
in the UK was risky of some fool in the US part of a corporation did
'unwise marketing' and, for example, directly inserted marketing
material to an individual in the UK who had no relationship with them
at all.
I'm assuming email, something one may do lawfully to UK individuals
(private citizens) only with opt in..
My imperfect knowledge said that I might report the UK organisation to
the ICO in the full expectation that they ICO would treat the
marketing exercise as under the legal control, even though the real
control was elsewhere, of the UK corporation.
After listening at length to senior ICO staff, and questioning them at
length, I was convinced, absolutely certain, that I had the
interpretation correct.
To be fair it has always seemed to be barking mad to hold a UK
organisation to account when all it has done is existed, and the sin
was committed elsewhere, without its knowledge or involvement.
So that is the end of my imperfect knowledge, expressed as well as I
can, but really not terribly well.
Today the ICO told me clearly and patiently that my understanding was
incorrect. I'm grateful. I know we have list members here from the
office and I'm sure they will pass my gratitude on.
It is now abundantly clear to me that ONLY the sins of the UK part of
a corporation will be held against it. Bad data practices in other
parts of the world can not and will not be laid at its door, even if
those practices cause damage or distress in the UK.
Quite reasonably the UKIC may elect to make representations via the UK
part of the corporation, but will not hold them to account over it.
I accept today that I was wrong yesterday. But I am very unsure that I
am alone in my prior misunderstanding. I know that very few of us
here deal with multinationals, but I'd be very interested to know if I
was the only one who was 100% out of step!
The thing is, I'm sure I've seen diagrams on ICO staff slides showing
how liability arrives at the local doorstep. Did I blink and miss
something?
You do, of course, get your chance now to laugh at me!
Tim Trent - Consultant
Tel: +44 (0)7710 126618
web: ComplianceAndPrivacy.com - where busy executives go to find the
news first
personal blog: timtrent.blogspot.com/ - news, views, and opinions
personal website: Tim's Personal Website - more than anyone needs to
know
Important: This message is private and confidential. If you have
received this message in error, please notify us and remove it from
your system. This email and any attachment(s) are believed to be virus-
free, but it is the responsibility of the recipient to make all the
necessary virus checks. This email and any attachments to it are
copyright of Meadowood Associates, owners of Compliance And Privacy,
unless otherwise stated. Their copying, transmission, reproduction in
whole or in part may only be undertaken with the express permission,
in writing, of Meadowood Associates, at Meadowood House, 30 Redditch,
Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 0TT.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All archives of messages are stored permanently and are
available to the world wide web community at large at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html
If you wish to leave this list please send the command
leave data-protection to [log in to unmask]
All user commands can be found at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm
Any queries about sending or receiving messages please send to the list owner
[log in to unmask]
Full help Desk - please email [log in to unmask] describing your needs
To receive these emails in HTML format send the command:
SET data-protection HTML to [log in to unmask]
(all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
