Elizabeth Denham is the third personality we consider for this series, for her exemplary work in defense of Privacy.

Coincidentally, she is also Canadian as Ann Cavoukian, although from British Columbia.

Graduated in History and with a Master of Archive Management, she was Assistant to the Commissioner of Privacy of Canada since 2007, Commissioner of Information and Privacy of British Columbia since May 2010, and has been appointed as the Commissioner of Information of the ICO (the Information Commission Office of the United Kingdom) in July 2016.

During her time as Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, Denham called for the proactive disclosure of records and published best practices for government ministries and public bodies. She also co-authored a guidance document called Getting Accountability Right with a Privacy Management Program.

Denham was appointed UK Information Commissioner in July 2016, and was involved in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 across the UK; and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Denham has undertaken investigations into Equifax, WhatsApp, Talk Talk, Uber, and Facebook, and oversaw the conclusion of the ICO’s investigation into charities’ fundraising activities. She issued a series of fines for companies behind invasive marketing, and in December 2018 she welcomed the new law that enabled the ICO to hold company bosses directly responsible and to fine them personally for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

She launched the inaugural Data Protection Practitioner Award for Excellence in Data Protection at the ICO’s 11th annual conference.

We hope that DocToDoctor can ever aspire to this award. Implementing redundant security systems is the way to go!

I suggest reading the interview that follows. It is a revealing experience.

Hopefully there are individuals who continue to face the Giants, even though others may think that they are mills.