Data: A New Direction - Consultation Response

In September the government published its consultation on reforms to the UK’s regulatory regime for personal data protection (under the GDPR).

Entitled ‘Data: A New Direction’ the consultation aims to create a new, pro-growth and innovation friendly data protection regime.

DMA lobbying makes an impact

The proposals appear to incorporate suggestions put forward by the DMA and our Members:

Greater clarity around the expanded use of legitimate interests. The confusion for some businesses revolves around when and how to use the 6 bases of data processing, particularly legitimate interest (LI). For the purposes of the data and marketing industry, the main bases selected will normally be either consent or legitimate interest. The two bases are equally valid in the GDPR text, but this hasn’t been interpreted this way in the past. Because the application of legitimate interests has been seen to be more confusing, some organisations have opted for Consent by default which is not always the best way to collect and use data.

The extension of soft opt-in for email to the charity sector – the government proposes to make it clear that soft-in applies to charity donations. As it stands, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation (PECR) says that charities are unable to use soft opt-in for campaigning. However, commercial organisations are able to use it when offering similar goods or services to existing customers.

Reduced administrative burdens on businesses to fulfil accountability/compliance requirements.

Your support

On 7 October 2021, the DMA, in conjunction with the government, convened a roundtable of industry Members to discuss the government’s proposed update to data protection legislation.

Crucially, our members investigated the importance of data adequacy to the industry.

Catch up on the highlights with this summary of the roundtable, including:

• Availability and use of legitimate interests
• Automated decision making and data rights
• Reducing burdens on business and delivering better outcomes
• The impact of adequacy agreement with the EU

You can also view the full event recording, here.

The response

With your support we believe that we have created a response which fulfilled both industry and the government’s call for pro-growth and innovation friendly data protection regime. You can read the DMA community’s full response to the consultation here.