UK— ICO reiterates call to impose jail terms on blaggers

The information commissioner has reiterated his request for custodial sentences for those who unlawfully trade in personal information. This was first called for in the “What Price Privacy?” and “What Price Privacy Now?”—special reports made to Parliament in 2006 by the previous commissioner.

They addressed the widespread illegal trade in personal information by journalists and private investigators in the context of investigations carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under s.55 of the Data Protection Act 1998. S.55, the UK’s so-called “blagging offence,” makes it a criminal offence to obtain, disclose or procure the disclosure of personal data without the consent of the data controller. However, to date, offences under s.55 are still punishable only by fine.