British Airways and Marriott UK data protection fines deferred again as coronavirus shutdown hits business

The UK Information Commissioner's Office has yet again postponed its £280m in fines against British Airways and Marriott Hotels for data leaks. The fines were handed to both companies following damaging and widely publicised digital break-ins affecting millions of people around the world. According to EU news website Politico …

[IGotOut]

Something tells me....

Marriot are going to have zero chance.

They can't exactly say "We take peoples information very seriously". But I'm sure they will.

[Pascal Monett]

"The ICO's legal budget [..] is a relatively paltry £2m"

We've already discussed that point. Let the ICO retain 10% of the fines it collects until it has a war chest of around 100 million.

That will ensure it has the teeth needed to impose the fines.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "The ICO's legal budget [..] is a relatively paltry £2m"

We've already discussed that point. Let the ICO retain 10% of the fines it collects until it has a war chest of around 100 million.

That will ensure it has the teeth needed to impose the fines.

No, it would ensure that the ICO's role changed from policing a system to making as much money as it could from it, to the detriment of everyone else.

There is plenty of evidence that this is how public and private bodies behave when a punishment becomes a cash cow. Look at parking fines - councils make half a billion from them annually and the Coronavirus emergency is used to extract large amounts of money from vulnerable people.

Instead the ICO should just be properly funded.

[macjules]

Re: "The ICO's legal budget [..] is a relatively paltry £2m"

The ICO is primarily funded by organisations paying the data protection fee, which accounts for around 85% to 90% of the ICO’s annual budget - approximately £46m per annum. This is supplemented by grant-in-aid from the government to fund the ICO’s regulation of various other laws which is about 10% or £4.6m.

Worth noting that all fines are paid immediately into HMRC and ICO never sees a penny of that money.

Reference: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/who-we-are/how-we-are-funded/

[Torchy]

They will be forgiven.

This is the start of the process to have the fines cancelled.

They will be told to make sure it does not happen again and I am sure that "lessons will be burned".