UK Governement says no to data breach notification law
Although the numbers of data breaches reported in the UK has been significant this year, the UK Government has recently announced it will not implement a compulsory data breach notification law for the private-sector companies. The decision was made after reviewing a recommendation made in July by information commissioner Richard Thomas.
On the other hand public-sector organizations are obligated to report any significant potential or actual data loss. Their private-sector counterparts should report the losses in the spirit of “good business practice”. So if your data is exposed by a public-sector institution and only 2 others have been affected, or if a private company looses thousands of private record but does not see reporting the incident as good practice, you will never find out.
“After considering the analysis of the experience of the US in the area of data-breach notification legislation, the government is not intending to implement similar legislation to that in operation in the US,” states the Response to the Data Sharing Review Report.
Private-sector companies are not clear of all consequences, as fines for organizations found in breach of data-protection laws will soon be raised. According to the same report, The Ministry of Justice is working with the Information Commissioner’s Office to determine the level of the maximum fine.
