What is the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) website?

ico.org.uk is the official website of the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK's independent regulator for information rights. It is relevant to you if you are in the UK and want to understand your data protection or freedom of information rights as an individual, or if you run an organisation that handles personal data and need to know what the law requires of you. The site is a regulator's information hub, not a commercial service: its homepage presents two main entry points, "advice for individuals" and "guidance for organisations."

What the ICO is

The ICO is an independent UK regulator responsible for upholding information rights. Its remit covers:

• Data protection — the rules governing how personal data is collected, used, stored and shared.
• Freedom of information — the public's right to access information held by public bodies.
• Related regimes — such as privacy and electronic communications rules covering marketing calls, texts and emails.

Because it is a regulator rather than a government department or a commercial company, its website exists to explain the rules, publish guidance, and provide routes for complaints and enquiries.

What you can do on the site

The homepage splits its audience in two, which is the quickest way to decide whether the site is useful to you.

If you are an individual with a question about how your personal data is being used, or you want to know what a public authority must disclose, the individual-facing advice is the relevant section. If you handle personal data on behalf of a business, charity or public body, the organisation-facing guidance is where you should start.

How to tell whether it applies to you

The ICO's remit is UK-focused. The site is most directly relevant if:

• You are dealing with an organisation operating in the UK and want to know your rights over your personal data.
• You want to make a freedom of information request to a UK public body, or understand how such requests work.
• You are responsible for data protection compliance in a UK organisation.

If your situation falls outside UK information rights law, the site's guidance may not match the rules that apply to you, and you would need the equivalent regulator for your jurisdiction.

A practical starting point

If you have arrived at ico.org.uk without knowing which section you need, use the homepage split as your first decision: choose the individual route if you are asking about your own rights or want to complain, and the organisation route if you are asking what you must do. From there, the site's advice and guidance pages are the substantive content, with the homepage acting mainly as a directory into those two audiences.