ICO i-advice
The Information Commissioner’s Office recognises how innovative uses of personal data can result in direct benefits to the public and allow businesses to grow. Data protection can be an enabler of innovation and economic growth by building public trust. We are therefore committed to helping organisations build data protection compliance into their novel designs.
We understand that during the conceptualisation and development phases of new innovations, organisations may require timely steers on how data protection law applies in specific circumstances. The purpose of the i-Advice function is therefore to provide responsive replies to precise data protection queries.
About i-Advice
The objective of the i-Advice service is to help organisations that are proposing to process personal data responsibly get their innovative products or services to market more quickly and efficiently. We do this by providing advice on specific data protection challenges within a timeline that reflects the dynamic design phase for new innovations. We would therefore encourage anyone that would benefit to contact us.
For prospective users of the service, set out below are some of the key conditions for i-Advice:
-
i-Advice is open to organisations that are proposing to process personal data in new and novel ways and are yet to launch their product or service.
-
Our team will aim to provide an informal view in response to a discrete data protection query within two weeks of receipt. There may be times however when it is not possible to meet this deadline. We will therefore inform you as soon as possible and tell you what options are available where this is the case.
-
The service will only consider one query submitted by an organisation at any given point.
-
The response provided by a member of the i-Advice team is not legally-binding. Any feedback is also given without prejudice to any decision or action that we may take in the future, including any enforcement or other regulatory action. Our input should however give you a steer on how to address the issue you have presented to us.
Please note that our website contains extensive guidance on data protection. Before submitting an application to the service you should therefore ensure you have checked this as it may already contain the information you need.
If you still do not have the answer to your query after having read the guidance, you should complete our pre-screening questionnaire. For eligible queries, a member of our team will look to contact you within 24 hours of the form being received.
Click here to read the terms and conditions relating to the use of the i-Advice service. We would ask that you read these before submitting a query to the team.