ePrivacy Regulations: Key Changes And New Penalties

Marketing teams, website owners and communications businesses should be taking immediate action to comply with the new UK Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Amendment Regulations 2011 which have come into force on the 26th May 2011.

These new UK Regulations amend the 2003 'e-Privacy' Regulations and set out specific data privacy rules for communications businesses collecting 'personal' or location-based data as well as rules for all organisations using personal information for email, text, phone or fax marketing.

Key points to note are as follows:

• Mandatory Data Breach Notice for Communications Providers: Telecoms and internet service providers (ISPs) are now under a positive duty to notify the UK Information Commissioner (ICO), and in serious cases, affected subscribers/users where personal data has been lost or subscriber/user data security has been compromised;