From the ICO’s press release:
The Information Commissioner’s Office today launched a consultation on a new statutory code of practice on the sharing of personal data. The consultation will run for 12 weeks from today, ending on Wednesday 5 January 2011.
The draft code sets out a model of good practice for public, private and third sector organisations, and covers routine data sharing as well as one-off instances where a decision is made to release data to a third party. Scenarios where data sharing might occur include a school passing information about a child to a social services department, a group of insurance companies pooling data about people making claims, GPs sending a patient’s record to a hospital, or a retailer passing customer details to a debt collection company.
The code covers a number of areas including:
- what factors an organisation must take into account when coming to a decision about whether to share personal data;
- the point at which individuals should be told about their data being shared;
- the security and staff training measures that must be put in place;
- the rights of the individual to access their personal data; and
- when it’s not acceptable to share personal data.
Thanks to Ian Geldard for reminding me to post this!