ICO stands firm on blue-chip theft

The Information Commissioner is firmly resisting calls to release the identity of top firms and individuals who have hired private investigators to steal data on their rivals, despite a number of high-profile leaks.
At least 33 names from the list of nearly 100 have already been exposed, including X-Factor creator Simon Cowell, banking giant Credit Suisse, accountancy firm Deloitte and insurance company Allianz. Cowell denies any wrong-doing.
MPs on the Home Affairs select committee gave the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) an ultimatum to publish the list by last night or they would do so themselves. But the deadline passed without Soca taking any action. And Christopher Graham, who is due to appear in front of MPs today, is also standing firm on non-disclosure. He wants more time for his office to conduct a criminal investigation over potential breaches of the Data Protection Act.
Last week, committee chairman Keith Vaz claimed it was in the public interest to name the firms and individuals who have paid private detectives convicted of corrupt practices.
Yet Graham has insisted this could undermine his office’s investigation. In a blog post on he wrote: “It’s not clever to start a criminal investigation by publishing the names of everyone and everything you’re investigating.”
He said it was unfair not those on the list could learn of their inclusion from a committee of MPs.
He added: “We have to start from the central principle of British justice that some of the 98 may not have broken any law.
“The criminal offence associated with ‘unauthorised disclosure’ of personal information depends on the prosecution establishing that the clients knew that the information they were seeking would be, or could only be, obtained by unlawful means. That will be central to the ICO’s investigation.”
The ICO is to write to the celebrities, law firms, banks and other companies to ask them what they knew about the activities of the investigators they were using, after being handed the dossier at the tail end of last month.

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