If the news that the Information Commissioner’s Office has levied its first fines is supposed to scare people and organisations into being ethical, compliant with the law, using common sense and following sensible IT security precautions then I’m afraid the ICO is deluded.
Remember that the ICO is complicit in the mass privacy breaches by BT and Phorm in their secret and illegal testing. The ICO did nothing to prevent this from happening. The ICO now says that it doesn’t need technical expertise for its role. I say that is bulls**t. The ICO needs technical expertise as much as it needs legal expertise. Its abysmal perphormance in the Phorm phiasco proves that it does.