data protection


forgotten’ where people have the right to have their information deleted if they ask for this. If a journalist receives a request from someone asking for a story or link to an article about them to be removed, Baines says it must be taken seriously and journalists should seek advice. As ‘data controllers’, freelance journalists and photographers are required to pay an annual fee of £40 to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Angela Phillips, professor of journalism at Goldsmiths,


University of London, says the main issue for journalists is not so much data protection but how the GDPR will affect advertising income. She believes the industry is underprepared.


“GDPR could be enormously useful to news publishers because they produce their own audience data and have a reasonably good relationship with their audiences,” she says. “The hope was that it would put more power into the hands of publishers in relation to how they use advertising and, in the long term, how much money they get but platforms, particularly Google and Facebook, are now beginning to flex their muscles and finding ways of strengthening their own relationship with advertisers to cut out the publishers. This is a kind of territorial battle that British publishers do not seem to me to be properly prepared for.” Phillips says German publishers that have set up their own organisations to


Implications for journalists


Security Freelances are advised to have keep personal and professional email accounts and contact details separate. Computers and back-up devices should not be shared (with anyone) unless professional files are password protected. Any paper records should be kept safe. External drives, USB sticks and SD cards should be password protected and encrypted. The NUJ advises against backing up words and pictures to cloud storage.


Journalists must tell the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of any data breach within 72 hours of it occuring.


Consent Journalists do not need consent as long as the data is gathered and retained for purposes of journalism.


Fees Freelances are required to pay an annual fee of £40 (or £35 direct debit) to the ICO. Although the fee has


been a legal requirement since 1998, not everyone has complied and as resources are stretched, non-payment can slip under the radar. However, failure to pay the fee can result in a maximum penalty of £4,350.


Websites Journalists who operate websites are advised to publish a data protection statement (see www.nuj. org.uk for guidance) detailing how data will be used.


vet of advertising are in a more advantageous position than UK publishers. “The critical issue for journalists and journalism is that the


data protection laws are going to change the way in which advertising is used online and that change is going to have big implications because so much journalism is funded through advertising.” Phillips warns it could have such an impact it could


eventually lead to closures and job losses. “As things stand, partly because of what happened with


Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, people are more suspicious than ever. People have began to understand the way in which their data is used, which means that when people are asked to give permission for their data to be used, a lot of them are going to say no. What people don’t understand is that the vast majority of advertising online has been served via personal data. That’s how it works.” “I would say that, in the medium term, there is going to be a lot of disruption to the funding we have seen over the past 10-15 years. In the long term, that might be advantageous to journalism – it’s possible publishers will be able to get more control of advertising on their sites and keep the advertising income. “At the moment, most ad income goes to platforms and


intermediaries, but the platforms are very powerful and, without regulatory intervention, they may be able to turn things to their advantage.” Phillips believes those most at risk are small, viral publishers who depend on intermediaries for advertising income and may find that the inevitable consolidation of ad intermediaries freezes them out. “All we can safely say is there is going to


be huge disruption for anybody whose income is generated through advertising online and, if they’re not ready for that, they could find their income disappears almost overnight,” she says.


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