On Sunday 31st October, many people will be gathering to carve pumpkins (if they haven’t already) and go out trick or treating – weather permitting or course. Sunday also marks another occasion, Elizabeth Denham who is the current Information Commissioner and heads up the ICO, will be stepping aside (after a 3 months extension) to make way for John Edwards, the incoming Commissioner as appointed by the DCMS. Edwards, who was previously New Zealand’s Privacy commissioner, has in the past stated that he will be “fair and impartial in his dealings with tech companies” . However, he has been reported in the past as describing Facebook as “morally bankrupt pathological liars” So what can we expect from our new Commissioner? In an interview with Damien Green MP, he was quoted as saying “These are nation state-sized commercial enterprises” and that it is becoming “increasingly difficult to engage them on the national level”. An insight into his way of thinking can be found in a statement he gave earlier this year regarding the current Commissioner Ms Denham’s’ handling of the ICO’s investigation into leaked CCTV footage that led to Matt Hancock’s demise as Health Secretary. The Sun newspaper published an article which showed him kissing aide Gina Coladangelo in his departmental office, which was in breach of Covid-19 rules. Mr Hancock then later resigned from the Cabinet after CCTV footage was published. “I don’t know how it got to the press, but I think investigating the security of the government facility such as that, and the way in which it is responsible for data it is entrusted with, is an entirely legitimate activity of an Information Commissioner” The ICO had faced earlier criticism over raids that were carried out on 2 homes in the south of England where it seized computer equipment, as it probed the alleged data breach relating to the incident. Edwards did have this to say: "What I really want to do is make privacy easy. And I think I can translate that to the UK. I want to make data protection easy – easy for industry to implement at low cost, easy for consumers to exercise privacy-friendly choices in their marketplace, and easy for people to access remedies when things go wrong." After all the sweets have gone, the candles put out, and the pumpkins have been put onto compost piles (or chopped up and placed in food bins in our case) Mr Edwards will be getting his teeth into his new job, so good to you sir, let's see what the next Commissioner is capable of. What do you think, has Ms Denham done a good enough job? Will Edwards wage war on the big tech giants, or treat them "fairly & impartially?"