Thread by @defenddigitalme

Ten years ago today, on November 6, 2012, Michael Gove announced plans to open up the National Pupil Database for commercial re-use. "It could also help stimulate the market for innovative tools and services."
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cm…
#MyRecordsMyRights #PupilData #DataProtection

He changed the law to let the DfE distribute identifying pupil-level data “for a wider range of purposes than currently possible” to “maximise the value of this rich dataset”. #MyRecordsMyRights #DataProtection Ten years later “confidentiality and security” are not working. 2/15

Today, nearly 3 years after the Learner Records Service breach was exposed in the press, the ICO has announced a DfE reprimand over the incident. ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/… 3/15

#MyRecordsMyRights #PupilData #DataProtection

We welcome the remarks that the DfE should improve, but this reprimand, despite finding practice “woeful” seems to have done little to meet the first of the ICO25 four strategic objectives, of safeguarding and empowering people. #MyRecordsMyRights #PupilData #DataProtection 4/15

We believe a light touch isn’t enough here. The ICO could have chosen to protect the rights of 9 million children in school immediately, using GDPR 58(2)(f) powers to impose a temporary limitation on all of the non-compliant practice. #MyRecordsMyRights #PupilData #DataProtection

In its (lack of) monetary penalty approach, the ICO must offer a meaningful alternative form of enforcement to secure accountability appropriate to the scale of the breach, and safeguard rights and redress for us, those affected. #MyRecordsMyRights #PupilData #DataProtection 6/15

As we have exhausted all other routes, Judicial Review is now the only hope we have left of restoring data subjects’ control of their rights. We are taking legal action after we first made a complaint to the ICO in 2016 and the ICO said there was no case. defenddigitalme.org/2015/09/23/wha…

Then came the nasty business 2016-18, the School Census nationality and country-of-birth expansion. We worked with the DfE. The Director General at the UK Statistics Authority worked with the DfE, requesting changes in 2017 and 2018. defenddigitalme.org/wp-content/upl…

#DataProtection

After our 2019 regulatory complaint the ICO carried out an audit and found the DfE commercial dept. “did not have appropriate controls in place to protect personal data being processed on behalf of the DfE". Mid-way through the audit, came the LRS breach. defenddigitalme.org/wp-content/upl…

The ICO found there were insufficient controls, oversight, or lawful basis. And, “the DfE are not fulfilling the first principle of the GDPR, outlined in Article 5(1)(a), that data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.” 10/15 #DPDIBill #DataProtection

The Department for #Education enabled gambling companies access to learners’ records. Yet 28 million plus people’s identifying records–including children 0-18 in the National Pupil Database–carry on being given away, a decade after it began, without any Ministerial accountability

DfE Ministers have ignored the Regulators for a decade, carrying on as if the rules only apply to other people. #education #PupilData #DataProtection #DataReform #DPDIBill Even adding 2 further expansions this year and refusing an ICO request to stop defenddigitalme.org/2022/09/16/new… 12/15

The UK government approach to public administrative data processing and the new ICO approach to its regulatory enforcement, fail to meet the public test of our expectations of the authorities: there should be no surprises. #DataProtection #DataReform #DPDIBill #MyRecordsMyRights

This is a gross abuse of trust: the government has turned a generation of learners’ records into a product without permission, without thought for the price we might pay in identity theft, risk of blackmail, stalking and more. #DataProtection #DPDIBill #MyRecordsMyRights 14/15

We demand respect for the data rights of the 9 million children in state education today, and further ca. 20 million who have left school.

News defenddigitalme.org/2022/11/06/ten…

Please support us here crowdjustice.com/case/labelslas…

#DataProtection #DataReform #DPDIBill #MyRecordsMyRight 15/15