All posts by Paul Stradling

News

Tech News : Five-Year High For Tech Hiring

New figures from job search engine Adzuna and data provider Dealroom show that hiring in the tech industry has reached its highest level in five years.

Vacancies Exceeding Pre-Pandemic Levels

The data, which was compiled by Adzuna and Dealroom for the Government’s Digital Economy Council shows that job vacancies in the digital tech sector have now exceeded pre-pandemic levels and are at their highest level since 2016.

For example, in April 2021 almost 10,000 vacancies for software developers were recorded.  This figure is almost double the number recorded in the same period last year. Also, in May this year, 132,000 tech/digital job vacancies were recorded in a single week.

Increased Demand For Digital Services

The increased demand for digital services created by the pandemic was a key driver in the increase in tech job vacancies.  For example, the pandemic meant that retail, healthcare and other sectors had to rely more on digitisation and many businesses found that they were forced into an accelerated digital transformation.  These factors created greater demand for tech products and services, and this, in turn, increased demand for those who could develop tech products and services.

Big Investment in UK Tech Companies

Another factor driving the rise in UK tech vacancies has been the big increase in the investment in UK tech companies over the last year. For example, as reported by TechNation and Dealroom, despite the global pandemic, there was a record level of venture capital (VC) investment in 2020 into UK tech companies, with investment reaching $15bn. This investment, particularly in London, Oxford, Bristol, Cambridge, and Edinburgh, meant that the UK became the third highest investor in tech globally, behind the US ($144.3bn) and China ($44.6bn).

Start-up Hiring Strong

The investment in tech companies has fuelled tech start-ups which, in turn, has kept start-up hiring resilient, and this has contributed to more tech job vacancies.

Almost A Quarter of Tech Jobs Now Remote

One important pattern in the tech-jobs arena is that almost a quarter (22 percent) are remote. This figure represents a doubling of the figure from the same time last year and is likely to be heavily influenced by a general move to remote working during the pandemic as well as by jobhunters hoping to avoid commuting, together with the uncertainty of office-based work in a changing public health situation. This move to remote working has boosted tech job vacancies outside London, and particularly in the north-west of England (Manchester) and Birmingham.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Back in 2019, much of the focus was on the challenge of a tech skills gap. Investment through 2020, and the effects on demand for tech skills caused by a surge in demand for digital/tech services during the pandemic have boosted confidence in the industry, boosted vacancies, and changed the geography and nature of tech jobs e.g., away from London and in favour of remote work. The government is, of course, keen to talk-up these increases as evidence of its investment in what now appears to be a booming UK tech sector. For UK businesses, this shift in focus of tech job vacancies should mean that they are more able to fill roles and get their required tech skills from a wider pool of talent around the country, perhaps considering more remote input.

News

Featured Article : Why Food Delivery App Orders Can Cost Up To 44 Percent More

An investigation by consumer champion ‘Which?’ has revealed that food ordered via delivery apps such as Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats can be considerably more expensive than dealing directly with the food outlet.

Food Delivery Apps

Seven out of 10 people in the UK (Which? survey) say they now use food delivery apps.  Popular delivery apps such as Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats work by allowing customers to place food orders from different restaurants and fast-food outlets in an area using an app on their smartphone or tablet device. Once the restaurant receives, accepts, and confirms a paid-for order, the nearest delivery person is directed to the restaurant from where they take the prepared food to the customer using the navigation in the app. Customers can check the delivery person’s status, location, and ETA on the app.

Deliveroo and Uber Eats have also now added groceries to their platforms so the above process differs slightly in terms of order-picking and delivery method.

Price Differences

The ‘Which?’ survey showed that ordering via the apps cost significantly more than ordering directly from the restaurant, even when delivery costs are accounted for. This is because in addition to individual items varying in price, there are also commission charges for the restaurants which may be reflected in higher pricing.

Comparison

In the Which? survey, a comparison was made between the cost breakdown and price of the same dishes (Chicken Shish & Mixed Grill) ordered from the same Lebanese restaurant, but using the three different Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats delivery apps. The results showed that ordering a Chicken Shish direct from the restaurant cost £12.95 but ordered via Deliveroo and Just Eat the price was £13.95, and £14.95 via Uber Eats.

The Which? survey also compared the purchase of the same groceries purchased direct from the Co-Op, and purchased using the Deliveroo App.  The total price of a direct purchase was £35.40, whereas the price of purchasing the same groceries using Deliveroo was found to be £48.09, a whole £12.69 more!

Commission Paid To Apps

According to Which? the extra expense appears to be down restaurants simply charging more to get back some of the money they must pay out in commission to the apps. The commission can account for anywhere between 15 percent and 35 percent of the total cost of an order. Delivery apps such as Uber Eats, for example, may offer participating restaurants a zero percent commission for the first 40 days before moving the commission rate up.

The Which? report suggests that with delivery app services essentially taking over from people going to the high street during the pandemic lockdowns, restaurants may have felt as though they were faced with the choice being of Deliveroo (for example) and at least getting some business while having to put up with the commission payments, or not being on Deliveroo but essentially becoming invisible and potentially going out of business. The evidence presented in the Which? report also appears to show that for some restaurants with higher running costs, the commission charges of the app delivery service may make using the service unviable.

Customer Complaints

The Which? survey appears to show that even though customers are having to pay more to have their food delivered, they are not always receiving value due to problems often related to delivery.  For example, 59 percent of Deliveroo users and 53 percent of Uber Eats customers reported problems with their orders over the last 12 months. The most common complaints were found to be late delivery, cold food and missing items.

Complaint Complications

It also appears that the fact that there is an extra, third-party service involved (i.e. the delivery app) means that in some cases, customers can find themselves being passed around between the app and the restaurant if they complain and so they don’t always receive a satisfactory resolution.

Resolution Complications

The Which? survey also found that although consumer law states that customers should get what they paid in the first place as a refund, in some cases, customers have been offered an in-app credit with an expiry date instead of a full refund.

Amazon and Deliveroo

Back in April last year, after the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) had considered competition concerns, it was decided that Amazon could invest in food distribution company Deliveroo.  Amazon had previously operated its own ‘Amazon Restaurants’ food delivery service in London, but this was closed in December 2018 following strong competition from Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat, among and others.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Convenience is the big selling point for delivery app customers and there’s no doubt that despite the higher price (compared to direct ordering) these app-based food delivery services have provided an extra layer of value during the pandemic when high streets were effectively closed. For participating restaurants, the app-based delivery services have also provided a lifeline during the pandemic, but one that comes at a cost (i.e. commission paid to the app). There may be an argument, therefore, that now that high streets are again accessible, ordering direct has to be a serious option for customers, not least because the price is lower, but also because any problems are likely to be easier to resolve. For restaurants, although they may receive many orders from app-based delivery services, the ideal situation would be to have more customers ordering direct, thereby cutting out the need for any commission payments.

News

Tech Insight : What’s DaaS?

In this article, we take a brief look at what DaaS is, as well as its advantages and disadvantages.

Desktop as a Service

Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is a service where virtual applications/virtual desktops, via a third-party public or private cloud service, are made accessible (streamed) to users over the Internet via an html-based web browser or a secure application downloaded to the user’s device(s).  DaaS is usually licensed with a per-user subscription.

VDI, VM, and DaaS

VDI refers to the backend ‘virtual desktop infrastructure’ of DaaS, including the ‘virtual machines’ that run desktop operating systems, and are hosted by the third-party cloud provider. A virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment which operates just like a ‘computer within a computer’, runs on its own isolated part of its host computer, and has its own resources that enable it to let end-users operate it (run apps on it) as they would a physical workstation.

Advantages of DaaS

The advantages of DaaS include:

– It offers businesses a simple to operate, centralised, turnkey, pay-as-you-go solution with minimal set-up time.

– It is flexible and scalable.

– IT admin is simplified (saving time and money).

– The DaaS providers handle VDI deployment, maintenance, security, upgrades, data backup, and storage, thereby saving money and freeing up in-house IT resources and meaning that companies don’t have to go to the expense, trouble, and risk of trying to manage their own on-premises VDI solution.

– An improved disaster recovery (DR) solution (i.e. failover resources) are hosted (securely) in the cloud rather than needing backup workstations.

– Better functionality and productivity from being less likely to fail, experience downtime or disruptions.

– Less dependence on (and fewer costs for) hardware/desktop infrastructure supply chains.

– DaaS can deliver better insights from data, as well as better data integration and governance.

– Improved agility of data workloads.

Disadvantages of DaaS

Some disadvantages include:

– Users will still need a device capable of running and accessing the DaaS service, as well as a good, fast Internet connection. Both of these factors have cost and employee access implications.

– Licensing payments are still required.

– Moving (sensitive) data to the cloud could bring some compliance challenges for some organisations.

– Trust in the security of the cloud is necessary and moving data to the cloud and transferring it over a network could, arguably, bring a data risk compared to keeping it locally behind the firewall.

– IT staff/the business may lack experience in using DaaS.

Some Examples

Examples of DaaS providers/service include Microsoft Windows Virtual Desktop, Amazon WorkSpaces, VMware Horizon Cloud, Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, Cloudalize, V2 Cloud, and dinCloud (dinWorkSpace).

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Many businesses have made the move to the cloud anyway and are also now used to the subscription economy and the ‘as-a-service’ model of delivery e.g., Windows 10. The DaaS model clearly offers many benefits, to businesses e.g., cost and resource savings, centralisation, security, flexibility, and simplification, as well as being particularly useful at a time when remote working and now the move to hybrid working have become important. DaaS also enables companies to improve the agility of data workloads, get important business insights more quickly, offer a better work access solution to employees as well as freeing the business from many of the traditional IT management and admin challenges.

News

Tech Tip – How To Use Anchors (Bookmarks) In Google Docs

If you’d like to make it faster and easier to navigate between different document sections in Google Docs, here’s how to insert anchors (known as ‘bookmarks’):

– In Google Docs, type the name of the document in the Title column and open your chosen document.

– Put the cursor at the beginning of where you want to put the bookmark.

– From the document navigation bar select “Insert” > “Bookmark”.

– Go to the section of the document where the link to the Bookmark should come from and click “Insert” > “Link”.

– Type your link text In the Edit Link dialog box.

– Click on “Bookmark” in the “Link To” section to open the Bookmarks list, select your bookmark, and click on the “OK” button to complete the link.

News

Tech Insight : Phew-It’s Hot! And It Affects The Web Too …

In this article, we look at how the weather can affect your Internet connection, and therefore the fortunes of the Web.

Vulnerabilities

Thinking beyond the router that is indoors, and protected from the weather, the rest of the infrastructure that brings your broadband is outdoors, and vulnerable to the effects of the UK weather.

Physical Damage To The Network

Much of our phone network is still made up of underground copper cable, fibre optic cable, and connections. This means that your Internet connection could be affected by:

– Flooding from heavy rainfall dislodging cables and water getting into the connections.

– Hot weather causing networking devices to perform more slowly and cables perhaps suffering physical damage that affects the connection.

– Climate change and extreme weather having had an impact in the form of extreme weather events that disrupt data centre sites. A recent Uptime Intelligence survey, for example, showed that 45 percent of data centres have experienced an extreme weather event that threatened their continuous operation. In the UK, a flood in 2016 at the Vodafone data centre in Leeds resulted in customers getting only intermittent services of voice and data. Data centres around the world are now taking measures to protect themselves from extreme weather that can cause damage and disruption to services.

– Underwater/undersea mudslides, linked to river flooding (from heavy rainfall) in West Africa recently caused oceanographic moorings of cables to surface, thereby damaging subsea cables.

– Rising temperatures (from climate change) increasing humidity across the world by causing the atmosphere to absorb more water vapour, which in turn can affect data centre operations and interfere with tech equipment, affect the strength of wireless signals, and cause slower broadband connection speeds.

– Wireless signals (outside the building) that are part of the communications network can suffer from lower levels of coverage due to rain droplets absorbing and interfering with the signal.

– Satellite dishes and aerials being shaken and/dislodged by very high winds.

Humans

When there are adverse weather conditions outside, this often results in increased use of the Internet and high bandwidth streaming services as people stay indoors and seek online entertainment. These periods of very high demand and high traffic can result in the slowing of Internet connections for many users.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Communications businesses such as ISPs, phone companies, and companies in charge of the maintenance of communications infrastructure now face more challenges from the weather than ever as the effects of climate change drive up temperatures, increase humidity, and cause more extreme weather events. This has resulted in the need to try to incorporate more weatherproofing into their communication infrastructures to guard against the kinds of weather events and threats that this changing climate brings.  Also, as in the case of Openreach, trying to maintain telephone cables (many of them being old, copper cables), ducts, cabinets and exchanges that are all subject to the UK’s changing (but often wet) weather is also a major challenge, at the same time as businesses and homes rely more upon more smart gadgets, devices and the IoT, and use more streaming services for entertainment. These and other earth-bound coverage challenges are the reasons why ideas such as satellite broadband are beginning to look like attractive communications options. SpaceX, for example, has launched/is launching thousands of small satellites into low Earth orbit to provide a global high-speed broadband coverage in a way that may offer protection, to some degree, from weather events.

News

Featured Article : How Much Do You Know About Copyright Law?

In this article, we take a broad look at copyright and how it may apply to your business online, plus what exceptions there may be to the law.

This Article

Firstly, it is important to make clear that this article does not offer any definitive legal advice but merely takes a broad look at the subject of copyright. Those seeking accurate advice about their own copyright issues should, of course, consult with a qualified legal professional.

Copyright Law and Software

Many businesses produce digital materials such as software or designs that are published online by themselves, for specific clients or for usage by third parties e.g., templates and photos.  In this article, we take a look at some of the main laws governing this digital material and what implications these laws can have for the producers and users of this material.

Copyright

So much digital (and non-digital) work is continuously created that there is no copyright register for the online world, as such, in the UK.  Instead, the law simply states that a person automatically gets copyright protection when they create something e.g., original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic work, (including illustration and photography). This automatic ownership also applies to creating original non-literary written work, such as software, web content and databases.

If you have copyright protection in the UK, it should mean that nobody else can copy, distribute (paid or free), rent, or lend copies of your work, make an adaptation of your work, or put your work on the Internet.

At Work or At Home?

There have been cases, however, such as the one highlighted on the Mills & Reeve legal website, whereby a person who was employed to write software for his job, as stipulated in his employment contract(s), wrote some software out of hours, out of the office, for which he claimed copyright. The court’s decision was that since he was employed to write software, it didn’t matter whether he wrote it in his own time on his own devices, his company still owned the copyright.  This is because:

– In UK law, if an employee creates an original work as part of their employment (they’re employed to do that job), the copyright is owned by their employer.

– An accurate employment contact, stating clearly what the employee’s work is for the company, e.g., writing software, makes it much easier for ownership (by the company) to be established.

Social Media Sharing and Copyright Infringement

The advent of social media, however, where work is routinely shared globally makes the matter of copyright seem a little more complicated because permission to post is rarely sought. For this reason, the concept of ‘fair use’ and the social media company’s licensing terms that users sign up to when joining the platform can also apply when deciding matters of copyright.  An example of Twitter’s copyright policy, for example, can be seen here. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/copyright-policy

Fair Use

Broadly speaking, the idea of ‘fair use’ (US) / fair dealing (UK) on social media means that copyrighted material can be shared/reproduced if one of a group of certain conditions are met. These conditions are that:

– If its sharing/usage is for research or private study purposes.

– If the copyrighted work is being used/shared for review or being quoted.

– If the copyrighted work is being used to report current events.

It is worth noting, however, that fair use/fair dealing doesn’t give a carte blanche to the sharing/reproducing on social media, and that each case could be considered legally on its own merits.

Protecting Your Own Copyrighted Material on Social Media

Although using a social media channel essentially gives the platform’s owner permission to use your content, there are some steps you can take to indicate that your work is under copyright.  For example, this could mean adding a copyright notice to posts or a watermark to images.

What If Your Copyrighted Work Is Shared Without Your Permission?

If your copyrighted work is shared without your permission (possible infringement of copyright) on social media, you can (firstly) contact the person who shared it.  If this is not possible (or there in no response/an unsatisfactory response) submit a report to the social media platform via their copyright form.  Facebook’s, for example, can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/1758255661104383?helpref=faq_content

Images

Many companies use and share images and the best advice is that images should be purchased or downloaded from reputable websites where it is made very clear, and where you understand what kind of licence you have and in what way you can legally use the image.

Royalty Free?

Many businesses use ‘royalty free’ images.  This means that the images have a special license so that the user can pay for the image license once but then continue to use the image in perpetuity without having to keep buying or renewing a new license.

If you need to check whether an image is copyrighted, a reverse search in Google images or other platforms such as Tineye (a reverse image search engine) can give a good indication.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Copyright and intellectual property are legal areas that businesses need at least a basic understanding of to avoid the painful consequences of infringement or being infringed. The safest route is, of course, to always seek permission and/or always check the copyright policies of the services/platforms that you sign up to and use where copyright could be an issue. Although the UK law is clear, there are of course exceptions (fair dealing) and it is always worth remembering that despite these exceptions, in the event of an infringement complaint, the individual circumstances are likely to be considered. Accurate employment contacts can also be a way to help protect your own copyright matters e.g., for software writing.

News

Tech News : AI Designs, er, AI Chips … Better Than Humans, Says Google

AI can now design AI chips hundreds of times faster (and better) than humans. Where will this lead? A recent research paper has described how a deep reinforcement learning approach to chip ‘floorplanning’ has led to AI generating chip floorplans that are superior or comparable to those produced by humans.

Floorplans

Chip floorplanning is the term for designing the physical layout of a computer chip.

Why Is It So Important?

The way a chip is designed impacts upon its performance (e.g. power consumption). Also, if a faster way can be found to design chips, this could save the months of effort spent by physical design engineers (and the associated costs) to produce manufacturable chip layouts.

Method

The paper, written by Googlers Azalia Mirhoseini, and Anna Goldie et al, highlighted how the researchers used a deep reinforcement learning approach, coupled with an edge-based graph convolutional neural network architecture.  The object was to design the next generation of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators, and this method enabled the AI to learn from past experience in chip floorplanning and to become better and faster at solving new instances of the problem.

The Result

The researchers found that in just under six hours, instead of the months it would have taken for human engineers, the AI design method automatically generated chip floorplans that are superior or comparable to those produced by humans in all key metrics, such as power consumption, performance, and chip area.

Also, the researchers believe that in addition to AI’s success in designing chips for AI, more powerful AI-designed hardware is likely to fuel advances in AI itself, thereby creating a kind of symbiotic relationship between the two fields.

AI Being Adopted By More Businesses

A recent Google Cloud (Harris Poll) survey found that the pandemic has led to more businesses adopting AI. The survey of 1,154 senior manufacturing executives revealed that 66 percent of manufacturers now use AI on a daily basis, with over a third (34 percent) saying that the daily use of AI and machine learning (ML) is helpful for their employees.

Challenges

Although these figures indicate that AI is almost mainstream, some of the challenges that business still have in the adoption of AI are finding ways to move from pilot schemes to live adoption (partly due to too much legacy technology on the shop floor), and not having enough people who are trained in deploying AI.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It is clear that many more businesses are adopting AI to solve real problems, save time and save money but are running up against the problem of a talent gap.  It is particularly interesting, therefore, that in chip design, AI has bridged that talent gap by training itself to be more experienced and knowledgeable than human chip designers, and in doing so has proved (in research) that it could save vast amounts of time and money. Also, in doing so, its continuous learning means that it will not only become better and faster at solving new instances of the problem going forward but will be able to design better hardware that can fuel advances in AI itself, thereby creating a kind of value-adding, symbiotic loop.  This is an example for businesses of how AI can help them bridge skills gaps in a cost-effective way, and create competitive advantages going forward that they may not even have been thought about.

News

Tech News : Millions Struggling To Pay Broadband Bills

A recent Citizens Advice survey has revealed that 2.5 million people are behind on their broadband bills, with 700,000 of these falling into the red during the Covid pandemic.

Young, With Children Under 18, Or Receiving Universal Credit Most Affected

The survey of 6,001 adults living in the UK revealed that 18 to 34-year-olds and those with children under 18 are three times as likely to be behind on their broadband bills as older groups and households without children.  This may be due to people becoming more reliant on broadband to work and help their children with schoolwork during the pandemic, with UK adults spending an average of 22 hours online each week.  The survey also found that Households on Universal Credit are nine times as likely to be behind on their broadband bill compared to those not on the benefit.

Another Hurdle In The Hunt For Jobs

Citizens Advice points out that being without broadband in today’s society simply creates yet another hurdle in the hunt for jobs, or in being able to help children with their schoolwork, and in being able to access help, information and completing forms online.

Broadband Is An Essential Utility

Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, argues that “Broadband is not a luxury, it’s an essential, like gas and electricity” and has called on Ofcom and the government to ensure that everyone is able to afford their broadband, no matter which provider they are with. The Citizens Advice CE also stressed that “people shouldn’t be penalised simply because their provider isn’t one of the few firms that offers a cheaper tariff.”

February Survey

Back in February, a similar survey by Citizens Advice also revealed one in six people were struggling to afford their broadband during the third lockdown and that poorer people were being locked out altogether. It was already known from previous surveys that groups struggling most with their broadband bills were people with children, disabled people, people from Black, Asian or ethnic minority backgrounds, those who were shielding, young people, and those in receipt of low-income benefits (e.g. Universal Credit) were found to be almost twice as likely to struggle to pay their bill as other customers.

Only Two Offer Cheaper Tariffs

Ofcom urged all providers back in December 2020 to consider offering cheaper broadband tariffs for those on a low income or who are struggling financially.  At the time, Ofcom found that if households were paying the average £37 a month for landline and broadband, this would take around four times the proportion of a low-income household’s budget, compared to an average household.

Only two nationwide and two local providers now offer these tariffs to those on Universal Credit.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The pandemic lockdowns have highlighted just how essential having a broadband connection has now become in society for everything from working online (remotely), study for young people and children, communication, online shopping, job applications or job interviews and more. In fact, broadband is now essential to allow people to participate fully in society and, as Citizens Advice has pointed out, not having a broadband connection (due to being unable to afford it) can put people and their children at a considerable disadvantage going forward. This also highlights another inequality in society based on income. Although broadband companies are businesses, the service they provide is now essential and has a major influence on society and the life chances and opportunities of UK citizens. Despite being urged by the regulator to offer lower tariffs for low-income groups, the lack of action by broadband companies may now mean that, under the European Electronic Communications Code, which is now part of UK law, broadband providers may be forced into offering affordable tariffs to people on low-income benefits.

News

Tech Tip – Exporting/Importing Google Chrome Bookmarks

If you’re switching devices or need to re-install Google Chrome from scratch but don’t want to lose your collection of bookmarks, here’s how to export and import them.

Export

– From Chrome’s ‘More’ menu (the three dots, top right) select ‘Bookmarks’ > ‘Bookmark manager’.

– Go to the three-dot menu (top right) and select ‘Export bookmarks’.

– Save the bookmarks as a html file.

Import

– Follow the same process, but from the menu in ‘Bookmark manager’ select ‘Import bookmarks’ and upload your saved html file.

News

Tech News : Conservative Party Gets £10,000 Data Protection Fine

The ICO has fined the Conservative Party £10,000 for sending unlawful marketing emails to people who did not want to receive them.

Breach

The ICO has decided that after an investigation into emails sent from the Conservative Party, in the name of Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP, during the eight days in July 2019 after he was elected Prime Minister, the Conservative Party breached the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) of 2003.

Unsolicited Emails

The breach of PECR occurred because, as the ICO concluded, the Conservative Party did not have the necessary valid consent in cases where marketing emails were received by complainants. Although 51 emails were found to be conclusively in breach of the regulations, the Conservative Party sent out 1,190,280 marketing emails between 24 July and 31 July 2019, and the ICO accepts it is likely that some of those emails would have been validly sent, but that it is not possible to identify what that proportion is. This is because, as stated by the ICO, “the Conservative Party failed to retain clear records of the basis upon which people had consented to receive marketing emails, as required by law.”

More Marketing Emails Sent During The Investigation

The ICO expressed concern that while the investigation into the initial breach was underway before the Conservative Party had addressed the original compliance issues, it “engaged in an industrial-scale marketing email exercise during the December 2019 General Election campaign, sending nearly 23 million emails” which “generated a further 95 complaints”.

Stephen Eckersley, ICO Director of Investigations, said “It’s really concerning that such large-scale processing occurred during the ICO’s ongoing investigation and before the Conservative Party had taken all the steps necessary to ensure that its processing, and database of people who would receive emails, was fully compliant with the data protection and electronic marketing regulations”.

The Fine

There has been criticism from some online commentators that the £10,000 fine may not be enough, when considering that according to newspaper reports, one luxury hamper of organic food delivered to 10 Downing Street recently cost £27,000.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

It is disappointing and concerning that such a big political party (the party now in government) would not check or know about and/or failed to comply with well-publicised data protection laws. As those at the heart of UK law-making, this does not reflect well.

For businesses, this story is a reminder that there are clear laws pertaining to direct marketing (i.e. any communication of advertising or marketing material directed at particular individuals). It is a reminder that consent is vital, and it is important to keep clear records of the basis upon which people consent.  Ignoring the regulations can result in a hefty fine and could prove very damaging to the reputation of a business.