Home Office pilot project that put tags on migrants' ankles 'breached data protection law'

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A Home Office pilot to place ankle bracelets on up to 600 migrants on immigration bail to track their whereabouts has breaches UK data protection law, watchdog says.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the Home Office had failed to adequately assess the risks posed by electronic surveillance of people, including privacy concerns related to the continuous collection of a person's location.

Data The data protection regulator said it had has now issued an enforcement notice and warning to the Home Office regarding the pilot project, which orders the ministry to update its privacy policies and warns that collecting data on a similar basis would trigger enforcement action from the part of the regulator.

The pilot project aimed to assess whether electronic monitoring was an effective way of maintaining regular contact with asylum seekers, while reducing the risk of absconding and offering a potential alternative to detention.

The ICO said it had been in discussions with the Home Office about the project since August 2022, after concerns about the pilot project arose. were raised by Privacy International.

The pilot ended in December 2023, but the ICO said the Home Office continues to have access to data collected during the trial.< /p>

After reviewing the draft, the data protection watchdog said the Home Office had also failed to assess the potential impact on people who might already be in a vulnerable position due to their immigration. status, for reasons such as the conditions of their travel to the United Kingdom, or the fact that English is not their first language.

The Home Office did not sufficiently assess these risks, meaning the pilot did not comply with the law.

The Information Commissioner John Edwards

The ICO said the Home Office had not given enough thought to how to mitigate these risks. for example by providing clear information about why people's location data was being collected and how it would be used.

The regulator added that throughout its investigations, the Ministry of Home Affairs had also been unable to adequately explain why it was necessary or proportionate to access the data it collected.

Information Commissioner John Edwards said: “Having access to a person's movements 24/7 is very intrusive, as this is likely to reveal a lot of information about them, including the possibility of inferring sensitive information such as their religion, sexuality or state of health.

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