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ARTICLE · 25 OCTOBER 2016

Information Commissioner Fines Talktalk £400,000 Over Customer Data Practices

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This month, the information commissioner' s office (ICO) fines TalkTalk for failing to adequately protect its customers' personal data.

United KingdomPrivacy
James Castro-Edwards
James Castro-Edwards

This month, the information commissioner' s office (ICO) fines TalkTalk for failing to adequately protect its customers' personal data. The record-breaking £400,000 penalty followed a cyberattack of which the telecoms provider was the victim, however the incident brought to light serious failings in its data practices.

The incident comes at a turning point in privacy law, with the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set to introduce severe penalties for data breaches, and the likely escalation of data protection to a corporate board level concern. If the GDPR was already in force, the fines TalkTalk might have rounded up to four per cent of its annual worldwide turnover – £71,800,000.

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