The Investigatory Powers Bill aims to update the version of the bill from 2016. As part of the King’s Speech today, the bill is said to deliver changes regarding data and government access to the data, with questions remaining on how far the UK government will go in leveraging widely available information.
Today, data is the new gold, and usage of the data can be controlled to a certain degree – this includes financial services info. But where do you draw the line when it comes to privacy and security concerns. The Investigatory Powers Bill will allow intelligence firms to use the data to help assess threats like cybercrime or acts of terrorism.
CI received some feedback from Marcus Evans, EMEA Head of Information Governance, Privacy, and Cybersecurity at the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright. Evans provided a note of caution regarding the bill. In the end, the devil is in the details.
“Unsurprisingly, the UK data protection reform remains on the parliamentary agenda and UK companies will need to continue to monitor its progress and how the changes will impact them. More interesting were the statements on the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill, which looks to give intelligence agencies greater powers to make use of bulk datasets, albeit limited to those already widely available to the public. The EU Commission is likely to scrutinise these measures carefully when reviewing the UK’s adequacy status.”
Earlier today, CI received a comment on the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill – legislation that seeks to foster a data protection regime. In 2022, the UK’s data created has been estimated to be larger than that of the EU, representing 6.9% of GDP. This is another policy segment where the details of any regulatory changes will be very important to consumers and businesses.