Richard Sisson, Senior Policy Officer, ICO, provided an overview of GDPR compliance and its impact on organisations, and the ICO. He said that complaints have doubled, and now stand at 41,000 per year. Breach reports have reached 14,000, whereas the year before the GDPR there were 3,000. There are now 700 staff, 60% more than in 2016, and an increased focus on particular areas of work, such as Codes of Conduct, online harms, age appropriate design and, inevitably, Brexit.

When the scandals emerged around personal information and political influencing, and the disruption of democracy itself, the ICO investigations concluded: “To retain the trust and confidence of the electorate, all of the organisations involved in political campaigning must use personal information in ways that are transparent, understood by people and lawful.” Research commissioned by Ofcom into online harms found that:
• 79% of UK adult internet users have concerns about aspects of going online
• 66% are concerned about content
• 58% are concerned about data/privacy
• 55% are concerned about interactions with other users
• 54% are concerned about hacking/security
• 45% of UK adult internet users indicated that they have experienced some form of online harm
• 21% of UK adult internet users have taken action to report harmful content.