The Information Chihuahua Bites The Consulting Association

The BBC News today carried a wonderful story.  The UK Information Commissioner has a bite!  And he bit a Droitwich based company that he states traded unlawfully in data.  He expects the company to cease trading by the end of the week.  Hardly surprising since its sole trade appears to have been in secret files of data on construction workers, according to the reports.

He used his investigatory powers to conduct a raid, yes a raid, on their premises.

Does this herald a new era when the Commissioner will now start to bite real targets instead of the softer ones his press releases appear to major on so far?

The question is, surely, "How does he decide when to act?"

We can see that he can and will act when cross enough, but what does it take to make him cross?

As a footnote, while the enforcement action and prosecution are effectively closing the company down, the end result will just be a small fine for failing to notify the Information Commissioner that the processing was taking place.

Odd, isn't it, that, had they notified him all would probably have been fine!

So the bite is a Chihuahua size nip, really.  He looks like a Rottweiler with the wrong dentures.