New plan aims to deliver effective data protection

Guernsey's Office of Data Protection (ODPA) said plans to increase promotion would create a "safe and prosperous community" where people could trust their personal information was used responsibly.

It outlined the plans in its strategic plan for 2026 to 2029, which was announced on Tuesday.

ODPA said it would look to promote data rights, work on education and outreach and take proportionate, assertive and agile enforcement action against significant non-compliance.

Brent Homan, the bailiwick's data protection commissioner, said the aim was to "further enhance the protection of citizens' data in the bailiwick while supporting a trusted world class innovative economy".

He said the plan aimed to "arm children parents and teachers with the information they need to address risks".

"One of the things we are focusing on is educating society and citizens of Guernsey about steps they can take to safeguard their information," Homan said.

"We have seen some very real and very disturbing uses of information - be it with deepfakes [and] be it with AI-generated images - there are things individuals can do to better protect their information.

"Individuals need to know there are privacy controls that exist that can limit the exposure of their information to others."

The ODPA said it was facing specific challenges as the digital environment evolved.

It said ways to confront these included promoting proactive compliance, managing breach risks, engaging our community and technological innovation.

It said it would look to publish an annual work plan and would review progress every quarter.

Education would be one of they key parts of the plan by creating a benchmarking survey to gauge awareness of the law and developing an outreach programme.

It would look to deliver sessions to 90% of targeted year groups in primary and secondary schools and conduct 25 community drop-ins and 10 workshops for individuals and organisations annually.

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