The UK’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has called on organisations across the country to share personal information responsibly to protect customers from scams and fraud.

Amid International Fraud Awareness Week, the ICO has warned that reluctance from organisations to responsibly share personal information between organisations and across different digital sectors to tackle scams and fraud can lead to serious emotional and financial harm.

To help provide clarity on data protection considerations, and better support organisations in this area, the regulator has published new practical advice. It’s aimed at any organisation seeking to share personal information to identify, investigate, and prevent fraud; especially banks, telecoms providers, and digital platforms.

For instance, organisations may wish to explore sharing personal information with banks to identify users who are likely to have been exposed to a scam on their services. Timely sharing of this data could help banks to assess the risk and ensure extra checks are in place to prevent fraud.

The new advice—and the ICO’s coinciding call—follows the ONS’ recent findings that fraud is the most frequently experienced crime in the UK, accounting for 39% of all reported crime in England and Wales alone.

“From emotional distress to financial damage, scams and fraud have serious consequences. We strongly support responsible and effective data sharing between organisations, which is key to staying one step ahead of criminals and preventing scams before they cause harm,” said Stephen Almond, the executive director for regulatory risk at the ICO.

“Protecting people must be the priority – I am warning organisations today that data protection law is not an excuse and it does not stop you sharing data that may assist with tackling fraud,” he continued. “Organisations acting responsibly can be reassured that we will take this into account if something goes wrong and we need to consider a regulatory response.”

Recommended reading

1. ICO Releases Guidance on Emerging Privacy Technologies
2. AI Fuels Consumer Demand for Stronger Privacy Laws
3. Report: UK Shoppers Risk Data For Holiday Season Discounts

Nick Sharp, deputy director fraud at the National Economic Crime Centre, also commented: “Information sharing between private industry, and with the public sector, is a fundamental tool used to tackle fraud.

“The new advice from the ICO is very welcome, and we encourage all industry partners to use it to ensure appropriate and confident data-sharing enables our joint efforts to reduce the harm from fraud.

“Together with our partners in both the private and public sector, we are working to identify, disrupt and prevent fraud, and will pursue every legal angle to ensure criminals who target the UK public are held to account.”