Earlier this month, the Information Commissioner's Office
(ICO) brought a criminal prosecution against
the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, SCL Elections, for
failing to comply with an enforcement notice issued by the ICO. SCL
was fined £15,000 and ordered to pay costs.
The criminal prosecution may not sound surprising – after
all, SCL had failed to comply with an enforcement notice. Clearly
the ICO is taking a hard-line approach to enforcement. SCL,
however, was in administration at the time of the enforcement
notice and therefore a key point to note here is that a company is
still required to ensure it complies with its data protection
responsibilities, including any enforcement, even when it is in
administration.
