30 08 2017 Insights Cyber and Data Protection

Key takeaways from Data Protection Commissioner Annual Report

Employment2 Colour
16 August 2016

Introduction

The Data Protection Commissioner of Ireland (“DPC”) published her annual report for 2015 on 21 June, 2016. This is the second annual report of Helen Dixon and her first report after a full year as DPC. The Annual Report gives a valuable insight into the areas of focus for the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (“ODPC”).

Last year was a pivotal year for the ODPC with the significant developments in European caselaw impacting on the way in which Irish business transfers data abroad as well as agreement being finally reached on the new General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Reflecting these increased responsibilities, the ODPC’s 2016 budget has seen an increase (from €3.65 million to €4.7 million) with further Government commitment to increasing the ODPC’s resources to keep pace with its responsibilities. Similarly, a move to new Dublin offices is also to take place in 2016.

Queries and Complaints to the ODPC

In 2015, the ODPC dealt with 14,427 queries, an increase of 6.87% from 13,500 queries in 2014. The ODPC also received 932 complaints in 2015 which were opened for investigation. This compares with 960 complaints in 2014, or a decrease in 2.92%. While the vast majority of complaints were resolved amicably, the ODPC made formal decisions in 52 cases and the complaint was upheld in 43 of those decisions. As has been the case for the last number of years, the largest single category of complaints related to data access requests, which accounted for 62% of the complaints made, as shown in the table below:

Type of Complaint

Percentage of Total

Number of Complaints

Access rights

62%578

Electronic direct marketing

11%104

Disclosure

10%94

Unfair processing of data

5%49

Internet search-result delisting

2%23

Use of CCTV footage

2%16

Failure to secure data

2%16

Excessive data

2%15

Right of rectification

1%13

Accuracy

1%10

Postal direct marketing

1%7

Unfair processing of data

1%5

Use of biometrics

<1%2
TOTAL100%932