Britain Keeps Quiet About Data Protection Day

Data Protection Day, an annual European Union event which aims at raising awareness of keeping personal data safe, went almost unnoticed in the UK on Friday.

It was the ideal day for the European Union to launch ABC4Trust, a project designed to limit what users share on websites, which often ask for more information than they need. But while other countries held events for the privacy-promotion day, the UK was notable for its absence.

Britain doesn’t care about privacy?

Although France, Germany, Spain and several other countries staged special promotional events for Data Protect Day, the UK did nothing.

In recent times, the Information Commissioner’s Office has said that privacy should not be an afterthought, and has begun to fine offenders and has called for prison sentences for those who breach online privacy.

Mark Fullbrook, director of UK & Ireland for Cyber-Ark commented: “Data Protection Day is a great opportunity to highlight the need for a tightening of data security industry-wide. It is therefore all the more disappointing that the UK is failing to do anything proactive to coincide with the event.

“Given the recent wave of Web-attacks, lost laptops and lost data – the event would have served as a timely reminder to the British public and business community that it is absolutely essential that we continue to campaign for a strengthening of data protection practices today.”

In an untimely revelation especially aimed at this auspicious day, the Information Commissioner’s Office chose to launch a damning report that 96 percent of British people do not trust organisations to keep their personal details secure. Furthermore, 60 percent fear they have lost control of the way their data is collected and processed.

We hope you all had a Happy Data Protection Day.