The UK Information Commissioner is to be given sweeping new powers to fine those in Whitehall and private companies who deliberately or recklessly lose confidential personal information, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, disclosed yesterday.
The level of fines, which is still being negotiated, could in the worst cases run to millions of pounds.
Straw is also considering a ban on the sale of information from the electoral register, after more than 1,600 complaints to the information commissioner about the online misuse of people’s details. They included a police officer whose family’s name and address, along with a map to their house, appeared on a website, along with details of somebody who had been a victim of identity fraud.
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has said the ready availability of so much personal information is a threat to privacy, and sometimes to security.
