Dan Cooper and Luca Tosoni of Covington & Burling write:
On March 12, 2020, the UK Supervisory Authority (“ICO”) issued a statement on data protection and coronavirus (“COVID-19”). The statement makes clear that the ICO will take a “reasonable and pragmatic” approach regarding compliance with the GDPR in light of the current health emergency.
Similar to the Irish Supervisory Authority (see our previous blog here), the ICO stressed that data protection law does not stand in the way of addressing the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It also emphasized that, in light of the severity of the present crisis, the ICO will adopt a pragmatic approach regarding enforcement, and will not “penalise organisations that … need to prioritise other areas or adapt their usual approach during this extraordinary period”. This is reflected in the ICO’s views on the following matters:
Read more on InsidePrivacy.