ICO Opens Children's Privacy and Data Sharing Scheme

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is re-opening its 'regulatory sandbox' service, this time with a focus on supporting organisations using children's personal data to develop products and services.

The regulatory sandbox enables organisations to work through how they use personal data in their projects with the ICO's specialist staff, to help ensure they comply with data protection rules. ICO is accepting applications from all types of organisations - start-ups, SMEs and large organisations, across the private, public and voluntary sectors - and this year, the projects submitted should focus on one of two themes: children's privacy or data sharing.

ICO says the projects should be at the 'cutting edge of innovation', and may be operating in 'particularly challenging areas of data protection', where there is genuine uncertainty about what compliance looks like. The ICO is particularly interested in hearing from innovators concentrating on the issues posed by the implementation of its Age Appropriate Design Code, or those developing products and services that support complex data sharing in the public interest.

Ian Hulme (pictured), Director of Regulatory Assurance, states: 'Protecting children's privacy online is a high priority for the ICO. Ultimately the regulatory sandbox aims to support innovators to improve confidence amongst children, young people and their parents and carers that their personal information is being properly protected when they are online. On data sharing our aim is to promote and enable confident, responsible and lawful data sharing in the wider public interest. In particular, the regulatory sandbox aims to help demonstrate that data protection legislation is not a barrier to proportionate sharing of personal data'.

Web site: www.ico.org.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.