Home Office Ankle Tags for Illegal Immigrants Breach Data Law, Says Watchdog

The information watchdog said the Home Office has breached data protection law by using GPS monitoring on bailed illegal immigrants in a pilot programme. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said on Friday that it has issued an enforcement notice and a warning “for failing to sufficiently assess the privacy risks posed by the electronic monitoring of people arriving in the UK via unauthorised means.” Any processing by the Home Office on the same basis “will be in breach of data protection law and will attract enforcement action,” the watchdog said. The Home Office acknowledged that “improvements to documentation could be made,” but rejected that the privacy risks of the scheme had not been sufficiently addressed....