3 of the largest penalties issued by the ICO in the last year
Organisations within the UK are required to comply with the DPA (Data Protection Act) or face fines from the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office).
To date, the ICO has issued penalties to organisations amounting to more than £6million because of their poor information security practices.
Here are the top 3 fines issued by the ICO within the last 12 months:
Prodial Ltd fined £350,000
In the largest fine ever issued by the ICO, lead generation firm Prodial Ltd was held responsible for over 46 million automated nuisance calls in “one of the worst cases of cold calling”. Over 1,000 people complained about receiving recorded messages relating to PPI claims. The firm has since gone into liquidation.
The Crown Prosecution Service fined £200,000
The CPS was faced with a hefty fine after laptops containing videos of police interviews were stolen from a private film studio. They involved 43 victims and witnesses relating to 31 investigations. The police videos were sent to a Manchester-based film company to edit so that they could be used in criminal proceedings, but the film studio was burgled and the laptops were not encrypted.
Home Energy & Lifestyle Management Ltd (HELM) fined £200,000
Green energy company HELM was fined after it deliberately broke marketing call regulations, making over 6 million automated calls offering ‘free’ solar panels. The ICO received 242 complaints. What’s worse is that the company in question is part of the government’s Green Deal initiative, and later admitted that it didn’t know what the rules of the DPA actually were.
