Navigating the complexities of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has always been essential for women in tech. However, the rapidly evolving data protection landscape in the UK now requires even greater attention, particularly with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) outlining its strategic plan through 2025, ICO25. This plan reflects the ICO’s willingness to making data protection more adaptable while still maintaining robust safeguards for personal privacy.
This article explores how women in tech can leverage ICO25’s objectives to future-proof their businesses and leadership roles, while ensuring GDPR compliance through 2024 and 2025. Understanding the key pillars of ICO25 and aligning GDPR practices with these priorities is crucial for keeping on top in this evolving regulatory environment.
Understanding ICO25
The ICO25 plan outlines the ICO’s strategic goals through 2025, with a proactive approach toward data privacy. It aims to balance innovation with the protection of individuals’ rights. Four key priorities emerge from ICO25:
- Promoting Accountability: Encouraging businesses to be transparent and accountable in their data practices.
- Safeguarding and Empowering People: Building public trust in how data is used, especially for the most vulnerable individuals.
- Enabling Innovation: Creating a regulatory framework that supports responsible data innovation while ensuring protection.
- Fostering Global Influence: Ensuring the UK remains a leader in international data protection standards.
For women in tech, these goals underscore the importance of not only maintaining GDPR compliance but also leveraging opportunities for leadership and innovation in data-driven sectors.
1. Remaining Accountable
One of ICO25’s main goals is to promote greater accountability within organisations, encouraging businesses to be proactive rather than reactive in their data protection measures. For women leading tech initiatives, building a strong culture of accountability within your organisation is essential.
What can you do?
- Governance Frameworks: Ensure your business has a comprehensive data protection governance framework. Assign staff responsible for GDPR compliance to ensure better oversight and regularly audit your data processing activities.
- Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs): ICO25 encourages a risk-based approach to data protection. DPIAs are essential to help you analyse, identify and minimise the data protection risks of a project, especially in areas like involving artificial intelligence (AI). By identifying and mitigating risks early, you can prevent compliance issues before they arise.
- Training and Awareness: Data protection must be embedded into the organisational culture. Women in leadership roles should prioritise regular data protection training for all staff, demonstrating the importance of accountability from the top down.
2. Safeguarding and Empowering People
A core focus of ICO25 is empowering individuals to understand and exercise their information rights. Women in tech, particularly those working in customer-facing roles or product design, should prioritise transparency and data subjects’ empowerment in their platforms.
What can you do?
- Up-to-Date Privacy Notices: Regularly reviewing and updating privacy notices to ensure they are easy to understand and clearly set out how personal data is processed and data subjects’ rights is essential to build trust and ensures compliance.
- Privacy by Design: Implement privacy by design in all tech projects, ensuring privacy considerations are built into every stage of product development. Provide users with clear and simple ways to manage their data, such as withdrawing consent or deleting their information.
- Managing Cookies and Consent: With cookies remaining a contentious issue under GDPR, ensure your cookie management complies with ICO guidelines. This means balancing functionality and user experience while respecting individuals’ preferences for how their data is used.
3. Innovating Responsibility
Women in tech are often at the forefront of innovation. The ICO25 plan encourages businesses to innovate but emphasises the need for responsible innovation, where data privacy remains central to technological advancements.
What can you do?
- Data Use Control: Lead with an ethical mindset when handling data in your projects. Consider both the legal and ethical implications of how your products manage sensitive data. Ensure your technology respects data subjects’ rights and builds fairness into its operations.
- AI and Automated Decision Making (ADM): As AI and ADM usage expands, so does the need for transparency. GDPR restricts decisions made solely by automated processes, requiring human oversight. Additionally, the EU AI Act introduces new regulations with extra-territorial reach, impacting UK businesses serving EU customers. Stay informed on ICO guidance and ensure your algorithms are explainable, fair, and transparent to mitigate regulatory risks and enhance your reputation for responsible AI use.
4. Navigating Global Data Flows and Cross-Border Compliance
As businesses operate across borders, managing international data transfers is critical. ICO25 emphasises the importance of ensuring the UK remains a leader in global data protection standards. For women in tech, staying compliant with international regulations and keeping up with global data governance is key.
What can you do?
- Management of Cross-Border Transfers: While the UK benefits from an adequacy decision with the EU, stay alert for potential changes. Assess whether your data transfers are to countries with UK adequacy status. For those that are not, implement compliant safeguards, including appropriate technical and organisational measures, up-to-date Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), and regular review of your data flows to ensure contracts with third-party service providers comply with current data transfer regulations.
Conclusion
In summary, the ICO25 plan serves as a crucial roadmap for data protection through 2025, providing essential guidance for compliance amidst rapidly evolving technological advancements and global data governance rules. For women in tech, aligning business practices with ICO25 not only ensures regulatory adherence but also empowers them to lead responsibly, drive innovation, and shape the future of data protection. By prioritising proactive accountability and responsible innovation, women can position themselves as leaders in an increasingly privacy-focused landscape, transforming compliance into opportunities for growth and influence.
Gerrish Legal
Gerrish Legal is a digital commercial law firm based in London, Stockholm and Paris. Gerrish Legal gives contractors the trusted legal support they need to run their business in all areas of commerical, contract, intellectual property and data protection law. Unlike traditional law firms, we follow your legal matter from A to Z. From the moment contractors partner with us, they can rest assured their legal needs will be looked after with the utmost care. We stay on top of the latest trends, embrace innovation, and provide flexible legal advice in accordance with our contractors’ budgets and deadlines.
