Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they plan to include in their forthcoming Online Harms white paper to mitigate against the risks of new types of harms such as (1) stolen data, (2) invasion of privacy and (3) interdependence of cyber and physical risks that could arise from increased use of Internet of Things technologies.

The Online Harms White Paper will set out a range of legislative and non-legislative measures to tackle a range of online harms. The Government takes both the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously.

The Data Protection Act 2018 makes our data protection laws fit for the digital age and empowers people to take control of their data. The Government has recently published a Code of Practice for Consumer Internet of Things Security, which outlines thirteen guidelines that manufacturers should follow to keep consumers safe. DCMS will be working to drive implementation of this Code throughout 2019.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport held a round table, to which Peers were invited, on 15th January 2019 to seek views on the scope of the forthcoming White Paper.