ICO looks to the financial benefits of best practice data protection

This week, Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, urged organisations to put a value on personal information and invest in privacy protection, and launched The Privacy Dividend report. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) report is aimed at providing organisations with a financial case for data protection best practice, and how to put a value on personal information.

 

Graham, speaking at the ICO’s Data Protection Officer Conference,  said that “No organisation can neglect to protect people’s privacy. Not only is it the law, but there is also a hard headed business imperative. This report provides organisations with the tools to produce a financial business case for data protection, ensuring privacy protection is hardwired into organisational culture and governance.” 

 

The report argued that “An organisation that commits to respecting people’s privacy and protecting their personal information will reap benefits.  It will earn and deserve the trust of the people it relies upon and that will pay dividends in terms of those people’s loyalty and their contribution to its success. It is more likely to have effective, well run information systems and processes.

 

“This will strengthen it operationally and improve its resilience.  It will be operating with lower levels of risk, meaning it is less likely to violate someone’s privacy and more likely to stay in control of its future,” it added. “It will be able to have confidence in its compliance with legislation such as the Data Protection Act and with the privacy aspects of other regulations and mandates that bear upon it.

 

“An organisation that does not respect people’s privacy and does not protect their personal information would be selling itself and it stakeholders short.”