ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the changing landscape of data protection legislation in the EU and the UK and the impact of the general data protection regulation by way of the data protection act 2018. The public’s ‘right to know’ has existed in Sweden since the eighteenth century, in the United States since 1966; in France since 1978; in Canada, Australia and New Zealand since 1982 and in the Netherlands since 1991. If a company meets the definition of a publicly owned company under freedom of information act 2000 (FOIA), it is a public authority in its own right and has the same responsibilities as any other public authority in complying with the act. The right to request information on public bodies under the FOIA is not confined to citizens on the UK mainland. The Information Commissioner’s Office in Belfast provides a local point of contact for members of the public and organizations based in Northern Ireland.
