The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is calling for greater powers to help crack down on privacy breaches, including the authority to carry out data protection inspections at organisations without always gaining their consent.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas put forward his proposals to a Home Affairs Select Committee today. The committee meeting was prompted by the release of the ICO’s surveillance society report late last year, which detailed the many ways that technology is currently being deployed to track individuals’ movements and activities, and how it might be used within the next 10 years.

Speaking to the committee, Thomas proposed new safeguards to help ease public concerns about the emergence of a “surveillance society”. One of these was to have stronger powers to carry out Data Protection Act (DPA) audits at UK firms. Currently the ICO has to gain consent before carrying out an inspection.

“People now understand that data protection is an essential barrier to excessive surveillance,” Thomas advised. “But it is wrong that my office cannot find out what is happening in practice without the consent of each organisation.”

Thomas also called for privacy impact assessments to be introduced for new IT projects involving surveillance aspects. These would require organisations to detail the privacy impact of the new technologies and how they could be minimised. The ICO also recommended it be consulted before significant new developments were given the go-ahead.

“It is essential that before new surveillance technologies are introduced full consideration is given to the impact on individuals and that safeguards are in place to minimise intrusion,” Thomas argued. “No one wants their electronic footprint to expose every aspect of their daily life. Positive action is required to ensure the potential risks do not manifest themselves. Otherwise the trust and confidence which individuals must have in all organisations that hold information about them will be placed in jeopardy.”

In support of its privacy proposals, the ICO is also planning to release a new Information Sharing Code of Practice and an updated CCTV code of practice this year.