By Mark Ballard for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Experian’s hardline stance came at a conference on “Big Brother
Britain” in London today, where a number of speakers said that more
severe penalties and obligations should be imposed on companies to
ensure data individuals' privacy concerns are taken seriously.
Anna Fielder, policy consultant at the National Consumer
Council, said the UK should follow the example of California, where
companies who expose individuals’ data have to contact and notify
the individuals concerned.
She added that the UK should adopt another US trend, where
customers have the right to lock or freeze their credit records,
with companies only able to access records on the individual’s say
so.
However, Gillian Key-Vice, Experience’s director of regulatory
affairs, rejected the idea of a notification scheme.
Key-Vice said that while she recognised why people might “think
it’s a good idea”, such a scheme could cause “unnecessary concern”
amongst individuals where a breach has already been “managed”.
She said if a security breaches are discovered, organizations
should go to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and discuss
whether a general notification is necessary.
She added that customers were able to add a notification to
their credit records if their identify had been compromised.
Fielder said what the NCC wanted was for customers to have the
right to “freeze” access to their credit records ahead of any
potential breach.
Dr Ian Forbes, a consultant social scientist at Fig One
Solutions, said the regulations in California amounted to a
“continuous public plebiscite” which meant customers could choose
to avoid companies that were sloppy in their protection of customer
data.
© The Register
2007
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