Regulation Hub Update - November 2019

This article is written by Steve Sullivan who is the Deputy Chair of the Contact Centre Council.

ICO

• No enforcement actions at all from the ICO since September.
• The ICO has started a consultation about giving the Commissioner powers to seize the assets of people found to have broken data protection laws under Proceeds of Crime Act. If this becomes reality then this is likely to be a far bigger deterrent on bad actors than a bar on them acting as company directors (see below).
• I gather from an Osborne Clarke event I was at yesterday, that the EU is likely to sign off the finalised ePrivacy Regulation text before the end of the year. As you know this will then require changes to the PECR rules, dependent on the outcome of Brexit, any deal, transition period and so on.
• In other news, the ICO and Facebook announced that they have settled their dispute over Facebook’s alleged role in the Cambridge Analytica political data abuse scandal. Facebook paid their £500k fine and dropped its appeal – but accepted no guilt or liability. Both the ICO and Facebook feel vindicated by this decision; arguably neither has been.

DMA

The DMA has produced some high-level infographic content based on the latest data Privacy research shared in last month’s update

Ofcom

Ofcom has announced a consultation on a proposed ‘technical clarification’ of its Caller Line Identification (CLI) guidelines. If approved, this means that Ofcom will allow organisations to present non-geographic numbers - or geographic numbers not necessarily directly tied to the physical location of the calling contact centre - as long as this is done consistently, not in order to mislead and doesn't involve the presentation of premium rate numbers for consumers to call.

The Insolvency Service

Two directors of failed Middlesbrough-based solar energy firm Solartech (trading as Hometech) have been banned from acting as company directors for 6 years after the company failed to pay its £90,000 fine for telemarketing to TPS numbers, imposed by the ICO in November 2018.

Phone-Paid Services Authority (PSA)

The PSA has fined three organisations (IT Zone, Prime Platform and Webdata) £250,000 each for scam text subscription services covering astrology, money saving offers and lottery numbers, respectively.

Fundraising, TPS & Payments

Nothing of note for contact centres this month, I think, from the Fundraising Regulator, TPS or about Payments.

Find the latest update here

More from the Contact Centre Council:

The Future of the Contact Centre

Outbound Telemarketing Campaigns Guide

Is your contact centre ready for changes to the European Payment Services Directive?