I am frequently asked how to get hold of the form to report a data breach to the ICO.

It is available at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/report-a-breach/personal-data-breach/

You need to scroll down the page to the "Can I report a breach online?" section and then cl...

This is just a quick reminder that it is time for my subscription schools to complete their termly review of data protection activities and return them to me for analysis.  If you don't have a copy of the questionnaire just drop me an email at

stevecullen@insightmsig.co...

Everyone should know by now that the deadline for responding to a subject access request under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 is one calendar month.

This obviously means there can be a variation in the number of days, with months...

I've had several queries recently regarding whether it is acceptable for a company acting as a data processor to process information on behalf of the school or academy as a data controller when the processing actually takes place away from school.

Under GDPR and the Dat...

There has recently been increased awareness of the need for state schools and academies, which are classified as public authorities, to have a publication scheme in place.  This has been a legal requirement since 2005 when the Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into...

For those of you working in local government, I thought that I would alert you to the fact that the ICO has now released an industry-specific toolkit for local councils.

The toolkit is available at:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/in-your-sector/local-government/

Hopefully school staff are settling back into the swing of things after the summer holidays.  I trust you are all refreshed and ready for the challenges of the new term.

If you have come back to find data protection issues waiting to be dealt with, you know where I am i...

I was very pleased to see an article on last night's BBC teatime news bulletin raising awareness of the lack of funding for child mental health.

I was, however, far less pleased to see them zoom in on the back of a child's who had his head down on the desk as they descr...

On Monday 15th July 2019, Link2ICT announced that schools internet by BGFL is to stop in April 2020.

This means Birmingham schools will need to find an alternative provider now, or risk losing the internet.

Link2ICT say they will call existing customers in September...

The ICO has fined telecoms company EE Limited £100,000 for sending over 2.5 million direct marketing messages to customers without consent. Their investigation found that though EE stated the texts were sent as service messages, the texts contained direct marketing and...