City Information Group

Monday 14 April 2008

DATA PROTECTION - IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE OR JUST A PIPEDREAM?

This event is kindly hosted and sponsored by

The topic is in direct response to current events and how we can address them

CDs containing millions of child benefit records from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) database have been lost
The NHS has misplaced as many as 6,000 smartcards used to access patient records.
Defence Secretary Des Browne has launched an official inquiry into military security after the loss of a Royal Navy laptop containing the personal details of 600,000 people.
A 2003 survey of FTSE 100 companies by marketing consultancy Marketing Improvement, revealed that just four per cent were able to comply with the Data Protection Act.
UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has argued for much tighter data protection laws in Britain, insisting that those who lose data should end up in court.
MPs on the Justice Select Committee have called for new laws to protect the integrity of personal data.
Other Commonwealth countries such as Australia or India are very proud of the regimented behaviour towards information management that has served them so well to date.

Come to this seminar to discover why these headline grabbing data protection issues are becoming more and more frequent.

Our two expert Speakers will give a short presentation on Data Protection, its difficulties and implications.

We will then throw their expertise and opinion open to a "Question Time" session. We hope that this will be a mix of questions given in advance from audience participants, and adhoc questions on the night as various themes develop.

Our expert speakers are:

Jonathan Holbrook, Head of Data Protection Practice Private Sector, Information Commissioner's Office

Jonathan will explain what the ICO is doing to address these issues

What are the main stumbling blocks?
How is the ICO raising awareness, resolving problems and enforcing laws?
Why we seem to have more difficulties than other Commonwealth countries?

Jonathan Holbrook is Head of Data Protection Practice for the private sector at the Information Commissioner's Office. He has responsibility for making sure that organisations which collect and use information about individuals are aware not only of what the law requires of them but also of how they can follow (and benefit from) good practice. Jonathan is a lawyer and has previously worked in private practice, in central government departments and in NDPBs dealing with issues ranging from financial services to equality and human rights. Jonathan joined the ICO at the beginning of 2008. The ICO enforces and overseas the Data Protection Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Environmental Information Regulations, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.

Sunny Bath, Data Protection Officer, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC

Sunny will give the publishers' perspective:

How publishers handle data
What the main issues are
Why Data Protection matters to a publishing company
How we prevent abuse. How we stop you being abused

Sunny Bath joined Euromoney Institutional Investor in Nov 1995 as a graduate trainee. Working within the Marketing Department for 2 years, he managed the implementation of the company's marketing database infrastructure, and is currently responsible for all database operations within the organisation. In 2002, he was appointed as the Data Protection Officer, and is responsible for maintaining the company's data protection procedures, guidelines and training.