Britain’s new privacy tsar said he will end the era of “regulations for regulation’s sake” in a decisive break from EU data rules.
John Edwards, the Information Commissioner, said Brussels’ GDPR regime had “imposed a drag” on growth and that he planned to only enforce regulations when it helped individuals.
He said a recent row with the EU that has prompted Facebook’s owner, Meta, to warn that it could cut off services in Europe was an example of how data concerns had become detached from reality.
Mr Edwards, formerly New Zealand’s privacy chief, was appointed as Information Commissioner last year as part of a shake-up of data rules inherited from Brussels that the Government has said will deliver a “Brexit dividend”.
Ministers are seeking agreements with countries including the US and Australia to boost data flows and have said the changes could mean an end to website “cookie” pop-ups.
“There’s an unreleased potential to lighten the regulatory burden on business while maintaining a very high and robust level of protection,” Mr Edwards said.
“For me, any measure that doesn’t deliver a benefit to individuals is a drag. I want to make sure that if we are asking businesses to take compliance steps that there is a concomitant benefit for citizens and consumers.”
Data rules should not be “regulations for regulation’s sake”, Mr Edwards added. “They are only there to help correct information asymmetries and power imbalances to help citizens make good choices in the world.”
Mr Edwards said Brexit meant the Information Commissioner’s Office had become “unshackled” from the EU regime, which often includes lengthy debates between multiple national regulators.
That model “probably hasn’t worked as anticipated in the drafting of the GDPR and I think probably has imposed a drag on some of those economies”, he said.
According to Mr Edwards, the UK could benefit from fears that the EU may crack down on data transfers to the US.
European courts have twice thrown out transatlantic data agreements over US spying concerns, and the changes have led Meta to warn that it could be forced to stop offering services in the EU.
“[It] seems to proceed without any apprehension of actual harm or risk, which I find puzzling,” Mr Edwards said of the European courts’ decisions. Investment could flow to Britain “if we can introduce some proportionality into that regulatory response”, he added.
