British Airways (BA) is on the receiving end of a GDPR fine of £183m from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), following a 2018 security breach.
This is the biggest fine ever handed out by the independent body set up to uphold information rights, and the first to be made public under new rules.
Since GDPR came into force just over a year ago, complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have almost doubled – up from 21,000 to 41,000. More than 14,000 data breaches have also been logged with the ICO.
Across all the EU countries which have implemented GDPR, there have been a total of 89,271 notifications of data breaches, and 144,376 complaints from the public.
The prevailing theory is that the number of data breach complaints are on the rise simply because GDPR has raised awareness around the importance of personal information.
Even so, no fines have yet been issued in the UK for a breach of the GDPR rules – so, has it really all been worth it?