The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has opened a public consultation seeking views on the criteria that proposals for privacy seal schemes will be assessed against.
The ICO recognises a privacy seal scheme as a "stamp of approval" highlighting an organisation’s commitment to good privacy standards and has said that it shall be endorsing at least one seal scheme, operated by an independent third party in the UK. The endorsement is conditional on the scheme’s operator achieving official accreditation by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS).
According to the consultation, any new scheme must have privacy and data protection as its core focus; cover the processing of personal data in the UK; be a new scheme, rather than an existing certification scheme; cover personal data issues that are relevant to a broad range of people; demonstrate a positive approach to the adoption of good practice in information rights, rather than just compliance with the letter of the law; provide evidence to show that there is a demand for the scheme in the area proposed; not be a "test" of every aspect of data protection compliance, and support the objectives in the "ICO Information Rights Strategy" and the current "ICO Plan" (2014-2017).
The ICO will formally invite proposals for a privacy seal scheme this autumn, with a view to selecting a proposal in early 2015. The ICO is aiming to launch the first round of endorsed schemes in 2016.
The consultation states that the ICO will endorse at least one scheme for a minimum of three years and will review all endorsed schemes in the final year. The review will examine whether the scheme continues to meet the framework criteria and whether the scheme operator has maintained its UKAS accreditation. ICO endorsement is separate to UKAS accreditation. Achieving UKAS accreditation is a condition of gaining ICO endorsement. The ICO will participate in the UKAS accreditation process by offering technical expertise and advice to UKAS.
The consultation closes on Friday October 3rd and is available here.