CPDP Conference Who is Who

Name: Thomas OPPE

Affiliation: Information Commissioner’s Office (UK)

Personal web-site:

Short BIO

Thomas Oppe is a data protection policy officer at the Information Commissioner’s Office. He has taken a lead role in the promotion of Privacy Impact Assessments by the ICO. This has included advising organisations in the public and private sectors on PIAs related to various projects. He has also facilitated several workshops on PIAs for privacy practitioners. Thomas has produced guidance on many different aspects on data protection compliance. Recent pieces of work include the ICO’s code of practice on personal information online, and the upcoming code of practice for data sharing.

CPDP Conference 2011 presentation

The role of Privacy Impact Assessment in the UK regulatory framework

PIAs are becoming an important part of the regulatory framework for data protection in the UK. The ICO has chosen to promote PIAs as a highly adaptable tool for any organisation to use. The key messages behind this approach are that PIAs are primarily a self-assessment tool, and that consultation with stakeholders is the key element in the process. The ICO has produced a PIA Handbook, which provides a basic framework and allows a data controller to develop a method of assessment which fits with their own project management techniques. This presentation will examine the ICO’s approach, the challenges it poses, and the affect it has had on data protection compliance in the UK.

On-line publications

1. Personal information online code of practice http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/topic_guides/online.aspx

2. Data sharing code of practice http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/consultations/~/media/documents/library/Corporate/Research_and_reports/data_sharing_code_of_practice_consultation_paper.ashx