The Information Comissioner’s Office (ICO), UK’s chief data watchdog agency, has claimed to have handled a record breaking number of data protection complaints last year.
According to the latest annual report released by the ICO, which handles private and public sector personal data complaints, the number of data protection complaints the watchdog handled last year rose almost 10 percent as compared to the previous year.
The ICO said it resolved near about 15,492 data protection complaints in the past financial year and had issued total penalties of worth £1.97 million to companies found violating data protection rules.
The number of calls to its advice helpline increased to 259,903, up by more than 15 percent from the previous year. Reports related to spam texts and nuisance calls accounted for around 161,720 complaints over the 12 month period.
The report highlighted a high number of grievances involving lenders and local government, including Glasgow City Council, which paid a fine of £150,000 for losing bank account details and personal information of taxpayers in over 70 unencrypted laptops.
The report notes that private companies were also affected, including Payday loans business First Financial, who have been fined £175,000 over complaints about unlawful spam texts sent.
The watchdog said it secured 12 criminal convictions as well as two cautions for individuals for unlawfully obtaining or disclosing personal data.
Announcing the annual report, Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, called out the government to bestow more authority and better funding in ICO to ensure that people’s personal data are well protected in the rapidly growing and complicated data protection world.
Ministry of Justice said that it is working together with the Information Commissioner’s Office to develop an appropriate funding model that will allow the ICO to “fulfill its function as a modern information rights regulator.”
