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I would operate a default of telling the subject in any situation where their data has been compromised unless there is a good reason not to tell them. I think it’s the transparent way of doing things, and it concentrates people’s minds if they know that if they’re the ones who make the mistake, they’re the ones who have to tell the person.

Conversely, I would tell the ICO only when it was legally necessary.

Making the situation right internally and externally is the important thing for me. Giving the regulator yet another case to wring their hands over and probably do nothing constructive with is to be taken seriously, but there’s a formula and I would follow that formula robustly. I think telling the person and examining what went wrong is more important than anything the ICO might do.

-- 
Tim Turner
2040 Training 
www.2040training.co.uk 

From: Phil Bradshaw <[log in to unmask]>
Reply: Phil Bradshaw <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 4 January 2019 at 11:46:29
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:  [data-protection] Friday Question - Breach Notification

Breaches must be reported to ICO if there is a risk to the rights and freedoms of the subject. We all understand that we need to "assess the likelihood and severity of the resulting risk to people’s rights and freedoms" in deciding whether to report so that not every trivial breach is reported.

Subjects must be informed if there is a 'high risk' - a more restrictive test.

Is it ever acceptable then, to inform the subject but not the ICO?

Would doing so compromise your ability to argue to the ICO (e.g. if the subject complained to ICO) that it had not in fact met the reporting threshold? If I was ICO I would certainly be asking "If there was no risk why were you upsetting the subject by doing this?"

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