The toolkit is intended to be a starting point for developing policies and procedures on data analytics’ application to personal data, and is intended for organisations at the beginning of a data analytics project.

The ICO toolkit works by asking questions to determine the legal regime you will be processing data under, and will then ask questions separated into four themes: lawfulness, accountability and governance, the data protection principles, and data subject rights.

Once these questions are completed, the toolkit will produce a report with tailored advice for the data analytics project in question. The toolkit is anonymous, and not answers provided are visible to or retained by the ICO.

The toolkit is part of the ICO’s artificial intelligence (AI) priority work, and follows two previous publications on AI and personal data – the Explaining decisions made with AI guidance developed in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute, and guidance on AI and data protection.

The ICO said: “It is vital that data protection is built in from the start when using data analytics to process personal data. This is not only the law but it’s a crucial step to gaining public trust and confidence in the technology and how your organisation is using people’s data.”