ICO issues guidelines for user-friendly privacy notes

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a Code of Practice to help organisations provide more user-friendly privacy and marketing notices.

Following a three-month period of public consultation, the guidance document informs organisations on how to draft clear and genuinely informative privacy notices for people.

The ICO wants an end to the confusing privacy notices written to protect organisations rather than to inform the public.

The code of practice aims at help organisations comply with an important but often misunderstood aspect of the Data Protection Act. It explains that the duty to actively communicate a privacy notice is strongest where the intended use of the information will be objectionable, or where the information is confidential or particularly sensitive.

It comes after the ICO called for an overhaul of privacy notices earlier this year, following a finding that half of consumers do not understand what they are signing up to when they fill in online and paper forms.

Iain Bourne, head of data protection projects at the ICO, said: “The Code places the emphasis on language to ensure privacy notices are understandable to the people they are aimed at. Organisations must use personal information in a way people would expect."

The code also contains an information-pack for general public, advising what they can expect and what to do if their information is misused.

“Individuals must also empower themselves by ensuring they understand exactly what they’re agreeing to when filling in online or paper forms. The code will help businesses develop a higher level of trust and a better relationship with the people they collect information about,” Bourne said.

The ICO said it will take these standards into account if it receives a complaint that information has been collected in an unreasonable way.

ICO hopes to end the reputation of privacy notices being impenetrable.