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The Guide to the Sandbox

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We are currently accepting expressions of interest to enter the Sandbox. Apply by Saturday 30th November 2024 to start your Sandbox participation by the end of this year. See ‘How can we apply to the Sandbox?’ to find out more.

The Regulatory Sandbox is a free service developed by the ICO, to support organisations who are creating products and services which utilise personal data in innovative and safe ways.

Participants will have the opportunity to engage with our Sandbox team, to draw upon our wider ICO expertise and advice on mitigating risks and embedding ‘data protection by design’.

The Sandbox provides a free, professional service for organisations, of varying types and sizes, across a number of sectors.

Read more about our previous Sandbox participants and our current Sandbox participants.

What are the benefits of taking part in the Sandbox?

There are a number of benefits to your organisation participating in the Sandbox. These include:

  • free access to ICO expertise and support;
  • increased confidence in the compliance of your finished product or service;
  • a better understanding of the data protection frameworks and how these affect your business;
  • being seen as accountable and proactive in your approach to data protection, by customers, other organisations and the ICO, leading to increased consumer trust in your organisation;
  • the opportunity to inform future ICO guidance;
  • supporting the UK in its ambition to be an innovative economy; and
  • contributing to the development of products and services that can be shown to be of value to the public.

How can I take part in the Sandbox?

We are interested in working with innovative projects using personal data.

For further information about the kinds of innovative projects we are interested in working with this year, please see our key areas of focus for the Regulatory Sandbox.

We will consider Expressions of interest against our criteria as they come in, and once our existing spaces are full, we may place successful applicants onto a waiting list as part of a ‘roll on roll off’ model.

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