The Data Protection Authority (the Authority) has fined Sure (Guernsey) Limited £80,000 for a lack of transparency as to how personal data was to be processed and for publishing personal data which contained inaccuracies and in some cases was contrary to subscribers’ wishes.
Following the distribution by Sure of The Bailiwick of Guernsey Telephone Directory 2019/2020, Sure reported to the Authority that it had identified a small number of entries in the Directory that may have been contrary to the relevant subscriber’s wishes. Sure subsequently issued a press release in an attempt to explain the situation. Consequently, it became clear that the Directory contained a number of mistakes and inaccuracies, including the publication of telephone numbers which should have been ex-directory.
Chairman of the Authority, Richard Thomas CBE, commented: “This is the first fine that the Data Protection Authority has imposed under the new Law. It was unanimously agreed by all members of the Authority. Although this fine is substantially lower than the maximum which the Law permits, we hope it will bring home the importance of taking great care with people’s personal information.”
The Bailiwick’s Data Protection Commissioner, Emma Martins, commented: “The data protection law provides organisations with a range of accountability tools to ensure appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place including being prepared to deal swiftly and effectively with any breach. In taking this action, the Authority has responded appropriately and proportionately to the evidenced compliance failures. We welcome the positive steps Sure have taken since this incident to ensure better data governance of the personal data in their care.”
A Sure spokesperson has said: “we’d like to again apologise to any customer who was affected by the errors in last year’s telephone directory. We have cooperated fully with the ODPA throughout its investigation and shall now take time to consider its decision. However, we are disappointed and surprised by the ODPA’s ruling which follows on from what, in our view, was a flawed and unfair investigation process. This included a lack of full disclosure about the specific matters of concern to the ODPA, which in turn made it difficult for us to participate meaningfully with the process.
“From our initial review of the ruling we disagree profoundly with the findings of the ODPA’s investigation, some of which were not put to us during the investigation and some of which are in our opinion factually incorrect. As such, we are now considering the ruling in detail before we formally respond.
“As part of our programme of continuous improvements we have made changes to how we compile and produce the directory going forward, based on feedback we received last year, to prioritise the accuracy of customer data and customer satisfaction. We note that these positive steps are recognised and welcomed by the ODPA in their media statement. These changes included giving all our customers the opportunity to check their entries before the directory is printed to ensure their details are correctly captured. We have also reviewed the directory layout and will be increasing the font size to make the entries easier to read.
“Due to the impact of the global pandemic, there has been a delay to the compilation of the 2020/21 directory which is expected to be available to islanders in November 2020.”
