Week in Review: All about the ICO, DEA lives on

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ICO dominates InfoSec

InfoSec 2011 may have been filled to the brim with vendors and had numerous debates going on, but the centre of the security world’s attention fell on the ICO this week.

A freedom of information (FoI) request showed the organisation had fined less than one per cent of all cases referred to it, and only taken action on a mere 36.

However, deputy commissioner, David Smith, claimed the figures were false and the ICO went back and forth with numerous numbers in a confusing effort to prove its effectiveness.

An interesting reaction considering it is the ICO which is tasked with ensuring the smooth running of FoI requests…

Digital Economy Act lives on

Fans of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) were celebrating this week, whilst critics licked their wounds.

BT and TalkTalk lost their judicial review of the DEA when the presiding judge, Kenneth Parker, deemed the legislation ‘proportionate.’

Obviously the Government and groups like the BPI were very pleased with the results, but the ISPs and rights groups are already planning their appeal, with the possibility of heading to the European courts.

We are pretty sure this isn’t the last we will hear of the DEA trials.

We’re watching you

The almighty Apple was revealed to be wielding even more power this week when research unveiled its flagship smartphone could track user’s movements.

The study found hidden files within iOS 4, used on the iPhone 4, which stored location data unencrypted on the device and passed it on when syncing with a PC.

Although Apple’s terms and conditions technically say it is allowed to gather user data, the technology within the device has been hidden for some time and the reaction against the so-called ‘tracking’ has been negative.

Maybe more users will scarper off to alternative operating systems but we have a feeling the Apple fan boys are happy with the company knowing what they are doing anytime of day.

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