UK Enforcement Delayed for a Year

Yesterday, on the day that the regulations came into force in the UK, the Information Commissioners Office, responsible for ensuring compliance in the UK, announced that it will give businesses and website owners a year to get their houses in order.

We can only assume that they have realised that it is going to take time for everybody to catch up.  We can only speculate on their motivations for this, but it does allow businesses that are now aware of the situation, to at least heave a collective sigh of relief.

Having this time to get used to the regulations is going to be good for everyone.  Not least becuase it enables time for technological solutions to emerge to meet the compliance requirements.

Although it is is clear that the ICO would like to encourage website owners to take action sooner rather than later, to at least show willingness to do something, even if it is not yet clear what it is.

At the same time the ICO has given us a glimpse of what the new web will look like with its own site.

I’m sure even they recognise that this is not the most visually elegent solution, but it does give us some insight into what kind of messaging and functionality they would expect to see – even as they point out that this will not be the right approach for everyone.