18 March 2020
Ms Jenny Shoesmith
By email only.
RE: IRQ0911259
Dear Ms Shoesmith,
We write in response to your recent request for information, which we
received on 18 February 2020. We are now in a position to provide a
response.
We have dealt with your request in accordance with your ‘right to know’
under section 1(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Request In your email you asked us:
I note that the Information Commissioner has recently visited San
Francisco as part of a trip to North America. An account of the visit can be
found here.
I would like to request the following information about the ICO's visit:
1) The full itinerary of the trip, including its duration, all locations
visited, and the purpose for which each place was visited.
2) The number of ICO officers on the trip.
3) The names and job titles of those on the trip.
4) The total cost of the trip, broken down into hotels, flights and other
expenses - I appreciate that some expenses may not be recorded
yet, but I would like to receive what information is currently held.
5) The class of flight taken by each person, and the rating of hotels
stayed at, if held.
Response
We can confirm that we hold some information in scope of your request.
We have addressed each element of your request below.
In respect of the first element of your request, we do not hold a recorded
‘full itinerary’ of the trip. However we have the following records of
locations visited and meetings/events attended:
Date
Location
Purpose
06/02/2020
Vancouver
A Conversation with Elizabeth Denham: Privacy
Gone Mainstream
Business in Vancouver event - SFU Segal
Building, Vancouver BC
06/02/2020
Victoria, BC
21st Annual Privacy and Security Conference
Privacy & Security: Bringing Digital Into Focus,
Victoria Conference Centre
• Keynote Speech by the Commissioner
• Panel Session involving the Commissioner
- Regulating Content on the Internet.
10/02/2020
Menlo Park,
Facebook—meeting with senior staff
California
10/02/2020
San Francisco, Twitter—meeting with senior staff
California
10/02/2020
San Francisco, Commonwealth Club of San Francisco—speech
California
and Q&A to an audience of around 160
10/02/2020
San Francisco, Meeting with the British Consul General and
California
discussion dinner hosted by the Consul General
11/02/2020
Berkeley,
Berkeley Centre for Law and Technology—
California
speech to students and faculty members.
Further speaking event undertaken at Berkeley
presenting on the ICO’s experience of regulating
for breach events at Berkeley Cybersecurity Law
course. Roundtable lunch with Berkeley law
faculty discussing issues of common concern.
11/02/2020
San Francisco, Speaking event with Q&A for privacy
California
professionals in the Bay Area facilitated by the
International Association of Privacy
Professionals.
11/02/2020
Santa Clara,
Meeting at the Markkula Centre for Applied
California
Ethics
11/02/2020
Mountain
Meeting with Huma to discuss privacy
View,
engineering
California
11/02/2020
Redwood City, Startup Grind conference presentation—Data
California
regulation: preparing your start-up for the
inevitable
11/02/2020
San Francisco, Meeting with the Financial Times
California
11/02/2020
San Francisco, Meeting with the Federal Reserve Bank of San
California
Francisco FinTech team
12/02/2020
Cupertino,
Apple—meeting with senior staff
California
12/02/2020
Mountain
Google—meeting with senior staff
View,
California
12/02/2020
Palo Alto,
Silicon Valley Bank—Roundtable facilitated
California
event with representatives of the start-up
community.
13/02/2020
San Francisco, Uber—meeting with senior staff
California
13/02/2020
San Francisco, AdTech roundtable organised by the Network
California
Advertising Initiative (NAI)—discussion forum
on the ICO’s current regulatory position on
AdTech with RTB stakeholders.
13/02/2020
San Francisco, Meeting with Nicole Wong, privacy law expert
California
13/02/2020
New York City Explain Ability Workshop
13/02/2020
Sacramento,
Office of California State Assemblyman Ed
California
Chau—meeting with Assemblyman Chau and his
advisory team, including the lead state
legislature official on the privacy committee.
13/02/2020
Sacramento,
Office of State Senate Majority Leader Robert
California
Hertzberg—meeting with Senator Hertzberg’s
chief of staff
13/02/2020
San Francisco, Attorney General of California—meeting with
California
staff responsible for drafting guidelines on the
CCPA
14/02/2020
New York City TechNYC meeting—discussions on how to
support startups, trend/market intelligence and
analysis
14/02/2020
New York City Meeting to discuss facial recognition technology,
adtech, AI auditing and AI developments in the
US
14/02/2020
New York City EDC meeting—discussions on how to support
startups and trend/market intelligence and
analysis
14/02/2020
New York City Meetings regarding the development and use of
AI with representatives of the Mayors office
14/02/2020
San Francisco, Presentation on ICO to British Consul staff
California
14/02/2020
San Francisco, World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth
California
Industrial Revolution—meeting with AI lead and
government affairs lead
14/02/2020
San Francisco, Meeting with Alastair Mactaggart, privacy
California
advocate.
In response to the second element of your request we can advise you that
the trip involved the Information Commissioner and five of her staff.
In response to the third element of your request please see below
information regarding attendees on the trip:
Name
Job title
Elizabeth Denham CBE Information Commissioner
Simon McDougall
Executive Director—Technology and Innovation
Service
Ali Shah
Head of Technology
Peter Hayes
International Strategy Adviser
John Kavanagh
Private Secretary to the Information Commissioner
Alexandra Delaney-
Private Secretary to Executive Director—TIS
Bhattacharya
In response to the fourth element of your request, the total cost of the
trip is not yet held. However, please see below costs recorded at the time
of your request. Please note that three different currencies are recorded
at they have not yet been acquitted through our finance systems.
Likewise ‘other expenses’ is those costs incurred during the trip on
corporate credit cards which has not yet been classified and acquitted.
Item
Total cost
Currency
Flights
20,475.41
GBP
Hotels
9,324.02
USD
Hotels
3,731.17
GBP
Hotels
192.70
EUR
Other expenses
4,178.18
GPB
In response to your fifth request, the class of flights taken by each
attendee is as follows:
Name
Flight class
Elizabeth Denham CBE
Business and economy
Simon McDougall
Business and economy
Ali Shah
Premium economy
Peter Hayes
Business
John Kavanagh
Business and economy
Alexandra Delaney-Bhattacharya
Business and economy
The hotels used during the trip have the following ratings:
Location
Rating
Rating body
Dublin Airport
Four Star
Failte Ireland
San Francisco
Three Diamond American Automobile Association
New York
Three Diamond American Automobile Association
This concludes our response to your request. We hope the information
provided is helpful.
Review Procedure If you are dissatisfied with this response and wish to request a review of
our decision or make a complaint about how your request has been
handled you can write to the Information Access Team at the address
below or e-mail
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx.
Your request for internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request
received after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the
Commissioner.
If having exhausted the review process you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to this office in our capacity as the statutory complaint handler
under the legislation. To make such an application, please write to our
Customer Contact Team at the address given or visit our website if you
wish to make a complaint under the Freedom of Information Act.
A copy of our
review procedure can be accessed from our website.
Yours sincerely
Shannon Keith
Senior Information Access Officer, Risk and
Governance Department
Corporate Strategy and Planning Service
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water
Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
T. 0330 313 1636 F. 01625
524510
ico.org.uk twitter.com/iconews
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