Does the UK ICO actually do anything?
Does the UK ICO actually do anything?
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Discussion

mickytruelove

Original Poster:

426 posts

128 months

Monday 1st February 2021
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Im struggling to understand why my business has to pay £60 a year because we process customer info (how else will they receive their order if we don't have an address).

What does the ICO do to warrant charging every company this?

shouldbworking

4,786 posts

229 months

Monday 1st February 2021
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Nothing is the short answer. It's a fee used to fund their work (which needs doing), but the time and quality of their work is nothing short of diabolical. Even now they have the legal clout to enforce some hefty fines, they fail to use it, which means businesses continue to not pay attention to them; it's cheaper to pay the fine than the fee...

https://www.commercialastuteness.com/briefings/bus...

vdn

9,156 posts

220 months

Monday 1st February 2021
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I had one of their letters and it looked fake. I almost binned it. Poorly presented and unprofessional in tone. I've not gotten around to paying yet.

towser44

3,891 posts

132 months

Monday 1st February 2021
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We had to do some address changes with them a few months ago and despite very clear instructions, each one took at least 2 attempts for them to get right. They seem very shoddy!

Mortgage_tom

1,467 posts

243 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
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towser44 said:
We had to do some address changes with them a few months ago and despite very clear instructions, each one took at least 2 attempts for them to get right. They seem very shoddy!
:-)

Same experience here. I changed my business address with them and they struggled

I have a login but you can't really do anything once logged in, no option to change your details. . Couldn't find me on the system when I phoned. So the solution they requested is to email them my current details and the new details....! Then many weeks later they sent me a confirmation email with my old details on. So I phoned, they told me to ignore it and that they have been updated! hahaaa

It did make me think why is the UK regulator of data so bad at handling my data!

Ean218

2,023 posts

267 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
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mickytruelove said:
Im struggling to understand why my business has to pay £60 a year because we process customer info (how else will they receive their order if we don't have an address).
It probably doesn't. Do the ICO checklist:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protecti...

As long as you are not holding data for some other purpose then you should get this answer:

ICO said:
You are only processing personal data for the core business purposes. You therefore do not have to pay a fee to the ICO.



scrw.

2,954 posts

207 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
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It is annoying that you have to pay them if you have cctv on a private business premises.

TotalControl

8,265 posts

215 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
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I was wondering the same thing earlier when I saw their letter that came to a few weeks ago.


jonamv8

3,233 posts

183 months

Tuesday 2nd February 2021
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Anyone been fined for none payment?

trickywoo

13,170 posts

247 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2021
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jonamv8 said:
Anyone been fined for none payment?
I don’t think you get fined for non payment but you may get fined for a breach of the rules if not registered.

VEIGHT

2,376 posts

245 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2021
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scrw. said:
It is annoying that you have to pay them if you have cctv on a private business premises.
For 'prevention of crime' specifically. Not sure why else you would have cctv?

scrw.

2,954 posts

207 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2021
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VEIGHT said:
For 'prevention of crime' specifically. Not sure why else you would have cctv?
Yes, so why should you have to pay them? CCTV that will not get looked at unless the worst happens, so you have to pay them, what do I get out of it?

Louis Balfour

28,176 posts

239 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2021
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The letter we received for one of our companies (not the others oddly) said that we must pay "because [our] customers expect us to".

I haven't conducted a poll of our customers, but I strongly suspect that not one of them gives a toss.


Sheepshanks

37,847 posts

136 months

Wednesday 3rd February 2021
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We haven't registered. We only deal b2b and we don't do any organised marketing as anything like that tends to attract the wrong kind of customers (too small) although there is some push to do this.

We're concerned that registering might put our head above the parapet, so to speak. Only a couple of our obvious competitors are registered, most aren't.

anonymous-user

71 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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StevieBee

14,318 posts

272 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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In the same vein as the ICO you have the Living Wage Foundation.

A few years back, we thought it would be advantageous to have Living Wage Foundation accreditation, becoming a 'Living Wage Employer'. I assumed this would entail some sort of audit. Turned out that in return for completing a form and parting with £130, we got a logo we could use on our website. I have no idea whether this was for a year or what the rules were about using it but we paid the fee and continued to use it for several years. Very odd.

jonamv8

3,233 posts

183 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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After posting last week we got a letter today....

anonymous-user

71 months

Monday 8th February 2021
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Sheepshanks said:
We haven't registered. We only deal b2b and we don't do any organised marketing as anything like that tends to attract the wrong kind of customers (too small) although there is some push to do this.

We're concerned that registering might put our head above the parapet, so to speak. Only a couple of our obvious competitors are registered, most aren't.
You should register if you're holding personal data, whether that is B2B, B2C or your employees.

Ean218

2,023 posts

267 months

Tuesday 9th February 2021
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RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
You should register if you're holding personal data, whether that is B2B, B2C or your employees.
That is wholly incorrect.

anonymous-user

71 months

Tuesday 9th February 2021
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Ean218 said:
That is wholly incorrect.
You're quite right. That'll teach me to skim read and post at silly o'clock. Apologies.