Information Commissioner Receives New BCS Award

In the UK, IT industry professional body BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, has awarded Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham its new award for her 'outstanding contribution to making digital technology good for society'.

BCS promotes social and economic progress through the advancement of IT, science and practice. Judges of its 2020 awards praised Denham (pictured) for her investigation into the unlawful data collection practices in political campaigns (including micro-targeting for marketing), which probed organisations including Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and Leave EU. The panel also noted that the ICO's joint investigation with the Australian Information Commissioner on Clearview's online scraping of biometric identification for a facial recognition app, 'breaks new ground' in being the first joint investigation with a non-EU state. The judges were also 'impressed' with Denham's leadership in helping organisations to understand data protection legislation.

Kathy Farndon, Chair of BCS Society Board, comments: 'Elizabeth Denham is an inspirational individual who is committed to making digital technology and data work for the benefit of society. Under her leadership, the ICO has been able to embark on the most daunting cross-border investigations on the misuse of individuals' data. Her investigation into political microtargeting and data collection practices in two of the UK's referenda is the cornerstone of Parliamentary reports on political manipulation online. The attendant report, Democracy Disrupted? Personal information and political influence is a must-read for anyone who is concerned about democracy in the age of online platforms.'

Web site: www.bcs.org .